Sea Gate Residents Vent Frustrations Over Rebuilding Assistance

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People whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Sandy's storm surge said it's a race against time. The floodwaters also stripped away protective barriers along the coast, and homeowners worry nothing will be done to replace them until it's too late. NY1's Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.

More than two months after Hurricane Sandy, parts of Sea Gate are still a mess. Houses in shambles. Streets filled with rubble. Some homes are being rebuilt, while others are beyond repair.

While residents are dealing with many issues brought on by the storm, they said one of the most pressing is the bulkheads that were wiped out.

"Our beaches are the most prominent thing that we have here in Sea Gate," said homeowner Natasha Reinhard. "And right now, from one side of Sea Gate and down all the way around, we have no shore protection to protect our houses."

"We basically lost all our bulkhead," said homeowner David Wynn. "We lost probably 1,000 feet plus of footage of bulkhead in front of my house and along the whole park. It's totally unprotected now. For the next storm, anything within 30 or 40 percent of the storm of Sandy, you're going to see houses being sucked into the water. There's no doubt."

Homeowner Pete Spanakos showed NY1 his waterfront property, where the bulkheads went down 25 feet. Hurricane Sandy left them tattered. He talked about the safety measures that need to put in place to help Sea Gate weather the next storm.

"We're going to have to re-do the bulkheads," he said. "We're going to have to berms out there. We're going to have to have t-groins and interlocking gates to try to control the water."

While some of the terminology may not be familiar, it all amounts to billions of dollars for structural safeguards, and right now, federal lawmakers haven't even passed a bill to provide immediate help as devastated homeowners struggle to recover from Hurricane Sandy.

"It's money that's supposed to be there to help people, not to make them suffer more than what we are," said homeowner Angelo D'Angelis.

Residents said the longer lawmakers take to pass the bill, the longer they're left vulnerable.