After her husband and daughter were killed by Hurricane Sandy, Staten Islander Pat Dresch could not bear to return to her destroyed Tottenville home.
Now, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that the city has bought what’s left of it as part of a federally funded rebuilding program.
“I couldn’t go back down there anymore. That was it. I lived there 30 years. My family passed there,” said an emotional Dresch, who has been staying in her church’s rectory since the storm and now plans to buy a new home further inland in Tottenville.
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“It’s mixed emotions,” she said. “I’m saying goodbye to something that I lived on for 30 years. And now I’m able to … start anew, a new chapter in my life.”
The Dresch home on Thursday became the first property acquired under the $648 million NYC Build It Back program, which offers homeowners help to repair or rebuild their homes, reimburses them for repairs or buys their properties if they choose not to return.
The city plans to build a new, more storm-resistant home on the spot where the Dresch house once stood.
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The Dresch family met with tragedy the night that Hurricane Sandy bore down on the city last October. Despite evacuation orders from the city, they decided to weather the storm at home because they had been robbed when they evacuated for Hurricane Irene the year before.
George Dresch and 13-year-old Angela were killed when the storm surge slammed into the house and swept it off its foundation. Pat Dresch was knocked unconscious, but survived.
Almost 24,000 New Yorkers have signed up for the Build It Back program since summer. It’s separate from a state program that buys storm-damaged properties and leaves them vacant.
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“We’re doing everything we can to help everyone recover and rebuild, but for many the losses were truly heartbreaking,” Bloomberg said. “We expect thousands more to be helped in the weeks ahead.”
The process of distributing federal aid has been slow and painstaking, Bloomberg said. He warned that the process would be put in further jeopardy if the federal government shutdown dragged on.
“The slow process in repairing, rebuilding, or acquiring homes is because of what you could easily call burdensome processes that the federal laws and regulations require,” Bloomberg said. “If the federal government continues its shutdown, things are going to slow to a crawl.”
Storm victims have until Oct. 31 to sign up for the Build It Back program.
City Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-S.I.) said the first home purchase marks a turning point in a long struggle to bounce back from the storm. “Finally, we see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
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