3 Years After Superstorm Sandy: What's Been Fixed?

The Associated Press
Published: October 29,2015

Three years after Superstorm Sandy pummeled the coast, thousands of houses have been elevated, but many others have been rebuilt or repaired as they were before the storm, leaving them vulnerable to future storm damage.
(AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

It's been 3 years since Superstorm Sandy pounded the coasts of New York and New Jersey and while major progress has been made on recovery efforts across a broad front, there's still quite a ways to go. Boardwalks have been rebuilt, sea walls erected, bays cleared of debris and thousands of homes restored, yet in some places crucial work to shore up infrastructure is ongoing, or still hasn't started and many homes still need to be repaired or rebuilt.
Here's a look at where things stand.

HOMES

Many seaside communities hit hard by Sandy show few obvious signs of the disaster. But look closer and you can still find stray buildings with boarded-up windows and sandy lots where houses were demolished and never rebuilt.

A boarded bungalow sits beside newly built homes on stilts in the Breezy Point neighborhood Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, in New York, before the third anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. “Every day, it’s getting a little bit better,” said Arthur Lighthall, general manager of the Breezy Point Cooperative, said. "The buildings going up to replace destroyed beach bungalows are being put on high foundations so that future floods will, hopefully, wash beneath the houses rather than bowl them over."
(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Neither the federal government nor the states keep reliable statistics on how many damaged homes and businesses are still vacant or in need of repair. More than 8,000 homeowners remain active in New Jersey's main rebuilding grant program. In New York City's Breezy Point neighborhood, 62 of the 355 homes destroyed by flood and fire have yet to be rebuilt.Thousands of homeowners are still fighting with their insurance companies over the cost of repairs. Many homes along the coast have been elevated to get them out of harm's way for the next big storm, but many more have simply been rebuilt as they were, leaving owners vulnerable to both future storm surges and rising insurance premiums.

TRANSPORTATION

Sandy's salty floodwaters did lasting damage to the tunnels that carry trains and cars beneath New York City's rivers. Manhattan's destroyed South Ferry subway station is still being rebuilt and won't reopen until 2018. A vehicle tunnel linking Manhattan to Brooklyn will be closed on weeknights for the next three years for rehabilitation. Of nine damaged subway tunnels, seven still need major work.
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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subway system, is spending $3.8 billion on repairs and anti-flooding measures. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is still evaluating long-term repairs to its road and rail tunnels beneath the Hudson River. Amtrak was been warning that its tunnels in and out of Manhattan also need major rehabilitation. Taking them out of service for repairs in the coming years could cause major disruptions in rail service on the corridor between Washington and Boston.
New Jersey has rebuilt Route 35, the second-busiest north-south highway along the Jersey shore.

TOURISM

All but one of the Jersey shore's famed beach boardwalks have been rebuilt; the last one, in Long Branch, is underway. They were among the first tangible signs of recovery; shore towns made rebuilding the walkways a priority to show residents things were getting back to normal. (A storm-wrecked boardwalk in Seaside Heights, where the MTV show "Jersey Shore" was filmed, was rebuilt twice; part of it caught fire in 2013).

A worker stabilizes a pre-cast concrete slab while a co-worker uses a crane to position it on a berm as construction continues on replacement portions of the Rockaway Beach boardwalk Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, in New York, before the third anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. Since the storm, more than $140 million has been invested to repair and restore damaged areas of Rockaway Beach, including the boardwalk, beach buildings, and to construct new facilities for the public.
(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

In New York City, the Rockaway Beach boardwalk is still being rebuilt, this time with flood defenses that include baffle walls to hold back the surf. Manhattan's South Street Seaport is still being rebuilt. The National Trust for Historic Preservation recently put the district on its list of most endangered historic places in the country because of the ambition of the redevelopment plans.

FLOOD PROTECTION

Many billions of dollars are now being spent to protect critical infrastructure from future storms, including electrical utilities and water and sewage treatment plants. In Sea Bright, New Jersey, repairs are being made to a damaged oceanfront rock sea wall, but other hard-hit communities' storm protection plans remain on the drawing board. The cost of storm-proofing low-lying urban areas could be astronomical.
(MORE: Hurricane Sandy Not "The Big One" Says Report)
The federal government sponsored a $1 billion contest to promote innovative protection systems, including breakwaters, berms and drainage canals that can keep water out of low-lying parts of New York City, and riverside New Jersey cities like Hoboken and Weehawken.

HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

A slew of hospitals, nursing homes and clinics that had to be evacuated and temporarily closed because of the storm are back in business, but many are still restoring damaged infrastructure or replacing it with something more flood-resistant. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has given New York City hospitals more than $2.7 billion to restore their campuses and do things like build new floodwalls and relocate emergency generators. One damaged full-service hospital, in Long Beach, New York, never reopened after the storm, although the island now has an emergency room.
MORE: Hurricane Sandy Damage, One Year Later