Superstorm Sandy has upended things in a unique way for first responders, reports the Associated Press.
Many are spending their working hours helping a battered city get back on its feet, only to return home to find destruction as bad as any in the city.
The NYPD says an estimated 1,300 officers suffered a “catastrophic” loss during the storm. And the Fire Department says 500 firefighters have registered their homes as damaged or destroyed. That figure doesn’t include people who lost vehicles or were displaced from homes still without power.
“This whole community is devastated, but they’ve still got to go to work,” said Roy Richter, president of the Captains Endowment Association, an NYPD union. “Give your wife and children a blanket and a candle, and say, ‘I’ll see you in 12 to 16 hours.”
For generations, police officers and firefighters heading home exhausted at the end of their shifts have found tranquillity in Breezy Point, which sits in sandy, wind-swept isolation at the tip of the Rockaway peninsula that protects parts of New York City from the Atlantic surf.
Here, the barrier peninsula is less than 1,100 yards wide in some spots from sea to bay. There is only one road in and out. Many houses sit on sandy walkways, rather than paved streets. Homes are bunched so closely, they nearly touch. Everyone knows everyone.
It would be an exaggeration to say everyone there has a badge or bunker gear, but not by much. Only about 5,000 people live in the community, yet it has three volunteer fire departments and lost 32 residents in the Sept. 11 attacks.
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