Community Corner
Surveying the Damage in Lordship
While many in the shoreline community remain without power, some are taking steps to rebuild.
Martha Versace stood on the sand Monday afternoon watching a blue curtain from the inside of her partially destroyed beach house flap rapidly in the wind.
"Everything from the front room just floated away," said Versace of her Long Beach summer home that was damaged during Hurricane Irene.
Versace said she plans to rebuild the front room which was lost to water damage, and that she has "made the appropriate calls" in order to get the insurance claim process rolling. She said a representative from the state's Department of Environmental Protection will be stopping by Tuesday, and that she has already sent photos of the damage to her insurance company.
Versace lives in Dobbs Ferry, NY, and bought the Long Beach beach house 11 years ago. She said it has never been damaged before, and she had boarded up the house prior to Irene's arrival. Unfortunately, all of her belongings that were stored in the front room were lost in the storm surge on Sunday.
But compared to one of her neighbors only a few beach houses over, Versace may have reason to feel somewhat lucky that her house wasn't completely lost. Just a few paces from where Versace was standing surveying the damage of her summer home, another beach house laid ravaged, roughly 50 feet from its foundation.
Pauline Street resident Richard Diedrichsen went to the waterfront Monday to see the damage firsthand.
"If damage sustained is half the value of the house, it can't be rebuilt," said the longtime Lordship resident. "Even if the owner pays for it, no one will insure it anymore. That's why you see so many empty spaces on the beach."
"Some of these houses in the old days were just slapped together," said Diedrichsen, whose own home suffered minimal damage. "I took every precaution. Even so, it's been exhausting picking up sticks."
Diedrichsen said that he was one of the lucky ones on his street to not lose power. He said a number of his close neighbors are in the dark, such as residents on Lordship Road and Jefferson Street. However, one friend on Jefferson Street who has a more inland source of power than others on the street, has power and has been sharing with next-door neighbors, he said.
"He's running extension cords to his neighbors so they can have power," said Diedrichsen. "That type of thing is not unusual here in Lordship."
What has the reaction to Irene in your neighborhood been like? Tell us in the comments section below.
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