‘It’s a long process.’ Rockland still on road to recovery 10 years after Superstorm Sandy

Two villages in Rockland County have worked hard to bounce back in the 10 years since Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc in the Hudson Valley.

News 12 Staff

Oct 25, 2022, 9:24 PM

Updated 720 days ago

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Two villages in Rockland County have worked hard to bounce back in the 10 years since Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc in the Hudson Valley.
Mayor Bruce Tucker wasn't in charge when the storm hit the Village of Piermont, but he was a resident there.
"What was interesting about Sandy was more like a wind event than a rain event. So, the winds were howling,” he says.
Tucker says rebuilding the area meant raising Ferry Road by 3 feet to alleviate flooding during high tides. The road leads out to Piermont’s iconic pier.
He added that the village has also made improvements to wastewater drainage systems, but the road to resilience continues and needs money and grants.
“We've probably spent about a half-million dollars so far. But it's going to take millions more to get where we are going to need to be. It's a long process,” Tucker says.
The mayor had a few ideas for solutions, such as using a living reef to prevent storm surges, updating codes on where people can and cannot build, looking to buy out homes in low-lying areas and moving emergency services to higher elevations out of the flood plain.
Piermont's neighbor to the North, Nyack, is also bouncing back since that fateful day.
"There was no electricity, we had meetings on the front doorsteps of Village Hall to plan responses and answer questions,” says Nyack Village Administrator Andy Stewart.
Stewart was serving as Orangetown's supervisor when Sandy hit.
FEMA funds helped rebuild the marina, including bulkhead walls that hold everything in place.
"The other thing is we've gotten generators, so we have that emergency operations capacity in Village Hall, in the DPW, and in our senior centers, which operate as a cooling or warming center in times when there's need for that,” Stewart says.
Rockland County resident Jeffrey Channin, 51, died during Sandy when a tree came through the roof of his Pearl River home.
Superstorm Sandy also destroyed part of Rye Playland and caused more than $20 million in damage.