10 Years Later: A Solemn Remembrance Of Hurricane Sandy

There were 24 lives lost, neighborhoods devastated, homes destroyed, boats ripped from their moorings, vehicles submerged under water, and precious photographs gone forever when Hurricane Sandy slammed into Staten Island’s shores on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012.

In the days, weeks, and months that followed a resiliency grew with neighbors, strangers, community leaders, and the brave men and women of the FDNY, NYPD and Sanitation Department uniting to clean up debris, distributing food, clothing and water, offering shelter and finding words of comfort amid the rubble and the grief.
Borough President Vito Fossella commemorated the 10 years that have passed with a solemn ceremony at Miller Field, once a staging ground for recovery operations. He was joined by Mayor Eric Adams, a contingent of elected and city officials, those on the frontlines, and those impacted directly by the storm.A lone violinist played, her music a symbol of the last 10 years: Reflection, hope, and renewal.
“There’s a handful of events in life when you can say you remember where you were, and Superstorm Sandy is one of them,” said Borough President Fossella, standing on the beach. “Today, we remember not only where we were, but we remember those we lost.”
He then read the names of the 24 victims, some from the same family -- a father and daughter; a father and son; a sister and brother; a couple married for 26 years, and the youngest, brothers Brendan Moore, 2, and Conner Moore 4, who were swept away from their mother when a wall of water flooded their SUV on Father Capodanno Boulevard.
“When a storm hits our shores, we are not Democrats or Republicans,” said Mayor Adams. “Some of those storms come from the sky as in a hurricane, but they also came in a form of terrorism on 9/11, they came in the form of COVID, they came in the form of monkeypox, and they come in the form of the financial challenges that we're facing today. When you sit down and do an analysis of who we are, sometimes we’re going to take different roles, but we all want one destination -- we want a strong and healthy New York and a strong and healthy America."