In 1911, the West Rockaway Land Company was formed to turn 900 acres at the end of the Rockaway Peninsula into a summertime vacation community. Since 1960, it has been owned/managed by the Breezy Point Cooperative. There are three communities affiliated with the Breezy Point Cooperative: Roxbury, Rockaway Point, and Breezy Point. While Breezy Point is a community built upon generations of families and has a special place in each of their hearts, Breezy Point is built along the water’s edge, which makes it more susceptible to damage done by natural disasters. For example, in 2012, Breezy Point was hit by Hurricane Sandy. It costed a whopping $7 billion in insurance claims. Due to climate change, there is a greater change of storms similar to Hurricane Sandy in the future. There has been resistance from residents to abandon Breezy Point, but one must ask oneself: climatically speaking, how many times should a hurricane hit before Breezy Point calls it quits? Breezy Point is home to families that have been there for generations, yet exists at the risk of the safety of its residents. On this page you will find interviews from members of Breezy Point telling their story of the storm.
Belle Harbor is a wealthy community located between Beach 126th and Beach
141st, and has a population of around 20,000, with a large percentage of the
population comprised of Irish-Americans and Italian-Americans. The land began
developing around 1900, when a New York judge ordered that the land west of
Rockaway Park be auctioned. The present- day neighborhoods of Neponsit and Belle Harbor were bought by a man named Edward P. Hatch, who eventually sold it to the West Rockaway Land Company in 1907. The president of the company gave Belle Harbor its name and developed the land into the beginnings of what it is today. Hurricane Sandy hit the area extremely hard, and the area continues to recover even today. On this page, you’ll find interviews of residents of Belle Harbor that endured the storm first hand.
Brighton Beach, otherwise known as Little Odessa, is an area of Brooklyn, New
York with a population estimated at around 40,000 people. Today, it is known mostly for its burgeoning Slavic community and vibrant shops and restaurants that line its boardwalks, but it started out as a small piece of a village named Gravesend. In 1868, a man named William A. Engeman seeking to build on the land bought out the land and built it up, naming it Brighton Beach after the town in England. Over time, the area was populated by middle class families of mostly Jewish or Russian descent trying to escape World War II, and gradually grew into the village it is now. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy devastated Brighton Beach, doing millions of dollars in damages and demolishing most of the infrastructure of the neighborhood. The area is, to this day, still in the process of recovery. On this page, you will find interviews from residents of the area concerning their experience with the hurricane.
Libre Baskerville is a classic font with a modern twist. It’s easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
The Coast Guard is one of America’s seven federal uniformed services, and has roots stretching back as far as the 18th century. In 1790, the government approved the construction of 10 ships to enforce federal maritime laws and prevent smuggling. As the United States of America grew, so too did the Coast Guard, received its current name in 1915 when the government merged the Revenue Cutter Service with the Life-Saving Service, creating a service wholly dedicated to saving lives at sea and preserving maritime laws. By 1946, they had also begun to maintain the country’s lighthouses and other aids to marine navigation, as well as the safety of merchant vessels at sea, when the Lighthouse Service and the Bureau of Marine Inspection to the Coast Guard. Today, it additionally operates as part of the Department of Homeland Security, and during times of war, serves with the Navy. When Sandy struck America, the Coast Guard were at the forefront of the disaster, heading out into the storm to save as many lives as they could. On this page, you’ll find interviews with
members of the Coast Guard who went through the storm first-hand and whose efforts saved many victim’s lives.
Libre Baskerville is a classic font with a modern twist. It’s easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Libre Baskerville is a classic font with a modern twist. It’s easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.