Sandy, 10 years later: CBS2 visits what were once destroyed sections of Lindenhurst and Freeport
LINDENHURST, N.Y. -- This week marks 10 years since Superstorm Sandy pummeled the Tri-State Area, scarring the coastline and the people who called it home.
All week, CBS News New York will revisit some of the areas hit hardest by the storm.
On Tuesday, CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reconnected with some of the people and neighborhoods she visited a decade ago on Long Island.
It was the dream house for Scott and Meral Guven.
"I'd seen the water view. My wife said, 'Okay, let's buy it,'" Scott Guven said.
They did so never knowing the Great South Bay would, within years, begin to swallow their Lindenhurst home.
"My daughter was screaming, 'We're going to die! We're going to die!' Everybody was crying in the house,'" Meral Guven said.
They huddled together on the top floor as Superstorm Sandy raged.
"It lasted all night and the water started coming inside the house and we didn't know what to do," Scott Guven said.
A storm surge of nearly 9 feet flooded 1,600 Lindenhurst properties south of Montauk Highway. The Guven's home was temporarily uninhabitable.
"The storm surge started coming in, smashing. The waves was coming into this window," Scott Guven said.
"It was so scary. All the power is out," Meral Guven added.
CBS2 was at this very location, Bayview and Atlantic, 10 years ago this week. The memories are jarring.
Along the South Shore in Suffolk County, it is a war zone, a battle zone. From home to home, everything was gone.
The flooding was widespread, officials say, because of Lindenhurst's proximity to Jones Inlet, and because the village's waterfront neighborhoods are ribbed with canals.
Ten years ago, McLogan asked one man to show his home, to which he replied, "Not really much to show. The roof is where my bedroom was. There was a dining room there."
Homes were pushed off their foundations. Water and debris trapped residents.
"In that corner, there was a father and a daughter, they got into the attic. Then, the next day, we heard them screaming. They couldn't open the door," Scott Guven said.
"It was just lifting up?" McLogan asked.
"Floating and hit the next house, which is now an empty lot," Scott Guven said.
The Guven's insurance paid $76,000, two-thirds of the cost to rebuild. They are relieved today because some of their neighbors who got funding from New York Rising are now being asked to show receipts of proof, or repay the state.
"If you help people, help people. Don't ask them 10 years later for their money back. I don't think that's right," Scott Guven said.
Fifteen miles west in Nassau County, the famed Nautical Mile in Freeport was under salt water. CBS2 was there shortly after the Woodcleft Canal burst at the seams.
"We had like eight feet of water here, like total destruction this whole area," said Gerard Bracco of Capt. Ben's Fish Market/Bracco Seafood Restaurant.
Bracco's fishermen family settled here from Croatia, and almost lost a fish market here for generations.
"Docks were ripped up, our equipment was lost, our electrical systems were lost. It was devastating, never seen anything like it," Bracco said.
Transformer fires destroyed businesses. Bracco's restaurant was shuttered, but FEMA funding helped the business reopen.
"We worked hard to work our way back," Bracco said.
The community rallied around the historic mile and family pride helped salvage Capt. Ben's.
"We have our three sons here. We have a good crew. Everyone pitched in," Bracco said.
The nightmare, Bracco said, brought Freeport together.
"So it's really getting busy here. Hopefully, the future will be bright," he said.
And the Guvens, their children now grown and out of the house, had the following to say about withstanding Sandy's fury:
"It has been a long time. We are here and we love the house, our neighbors, our community, everybody. We are happy here," Meral Guven said.
Sandy spawned activism and a greater sense of community across Long Island.
