The deformed, burnt vehicles showed how ravaging the fire was. Photo by Joanna Law/ People's Daily Online
No private vehicles were allowed to go into Breezy Point. Everyone had to park their cars miles away and trudge in mud water to inspect if their homes were still intact. When we got off our car, a gentleman named Regean whose car parked behind ours asked, 「How’s your house?」
We told him we were reporters and asked how his house was.
「Burnt down,」 was his answer.
Regean had been living in the community for 50 years, but he had never encountered anything that’s as destructive as Sandy. In the past two days, he has been staying with his relatives outside of the peninsular. When asked what he was planning to do, Regean said, 「I don’t know yet. I』ve lost everything.」
Pat Newael’s house, which she and her husband built 15 years ago, was soaked with seawater. The water went as high as 5 to 8 feet. She had to let go of all her antique furniture on the first floor. This was the second time she came back to check on her lost since she left on Sunday. Luckily, the second floor was not affected, and Ms. Newael had relocated as much of her valuable stuff such as photo albums up as possible before the hurricane came.