Sandy began...
We were in Bayside with family, not home where we really wanted to be. We kept in touch with several neighbors who had decided to tough out the storm at the Anchorage, our home...their texts were a link to what was happening and what we would need to know...
We watched local news and watched our community be swallowed up by the water that had always been our love...south on Woodcleft Avenue, slowly inching up until there was nothing but water there, then north on Guy Lombardo Avenue, approaching Atlantic Avenue...we knew we were sunk...
Then the text from our neighbors. Water in all units, beginning to abate, but everyone had water- all 150 units...tears, fears, omg what would happen next...
We traveled home as soon as we could and approached the area of South Freeport with trepidation, it looked like armageddon– boats on lawns, oil tanks turned over, cars everywhere but in the driveways...
When we got to our community we entered the gate and saw that water had invaded everywhere... reeds were in place of lawns, cars were sideways on lawns and driveways with foggy windows from the moisture that had invaded them... we entered our home and found it filled with muck and brown silt.. everything was covered by it, the refrigerator had moved two feet forward, all the papers and magazines were scattered over the floor, plastic storage containers that had been on a shelf were scattered on the floor filled with mucky ocean water... the place smelled like a combination of salt water and oil and other unknown scents.
We walked around dazed and did not believe what we were seeing... but clean up needed to begin, so valiantly we began to remove furniture, carpets, and the detritus that had been our lives. It took almost a week of diligent work to get everything sorted, thrown away, or stored on the second floor...
The waiting began... waiting for instructions from the Coop Board and Management Company...waiting for insurance and FEMA adjusters...waiting to GO HOME
Almost four months later we continue to wait.......
