Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder, at podium, joined civic leaders and homeowners to urge Mayor Bloomberg to restore the rapidly decaying Jamaica Bay seawall. File Photo
Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder’s tenacity, courage and resourcefulness were put to the test when Hurricane Sandy hit his district, made up of Ozone Park, Howard Beach, Lindenwood, Broad Channel and the Rockaways. The storm impacted nearly 85% of the people residing within those areas.
In the wake of the storm, Goldfeder (D-Rockaway Park) was not only picking up the pieces for his citizens but for his own family, whose home in Far Rockaway was flooded and destroyed during Sandy.
In preparation for the storm, barricades in sensitive areas were put in place in his district.
“All of my district is surrounded by water so were doing everything we could to prepare,” he said.
They front-loaded the beaches with sand bags and barricaded what they could. On the Sunday night of the storm, all of the protection was whipped away, leaving Goldfeder’s district vulnerable to the damage that happened Monday night.
Goldfeder and his family had decided his wife and two small children should evacuate – but he would stay in his home in Far Rockaway in order to access the people in his district.
“I was telling people to evacuate but not evacuating myself,” Goldfeder said, stressing how concerned he was to leave someone behind.
When the storm started, the legislator checked his garage for water seepage and noticed a few inches coming in, so he went upstairs to pack a quick bag to leave and when he got back downstairs four and a half feet of water had rushed into his home. That night he went to the police precinct and slept where he would be sleeping for the next week.
The next morning, Goldfeder attempted to process the chaos left in Sandy’s wake – and felt completely helpless.
“I was a newly elected official whose own house was destroyed, so I sat in my car not knowing what to do,” he said.
Then, instinct kicked in for Goldfeder. He drove down each block and surveyed the situation in each neighborhood. He asked individuals in the area what they needed and who needed help. He assessed the situation one neighborhood at time.
Once he could assess the needs of each area, responses from other districts was phenomenal. He said he posted on Twitter that Hamilton Beach needed food, and by that night there was a massive set-up giving away food.
In the two months after the storm Goldfeder spent his time fixing one problem at a time.
“After the storm, I probably saw my kids four times in two months,” he said. He attributes the success of his family’s swift recovery to the wherewithal and ingenuity of his wife.
Goldfeder continues to work on recovery in his district – and no doubt will for a long time to come. From working with residents to access funding to begin fixing their homes to urging Gov. Cuomo to streamline the process needed to help Breezy Point residents rebuild the homes that had been completely destroyed by a fire during the storm, the legislator is attempting to do something nobody before Sandy thought they would have to do: Start over.
“Every day in the past year we have a new problem,” Goldfeder said.
“Every areas has a different problem with a different solution,” the legislator added.
In Sandy’s wake, Goldfeder too has worked on not only restoring the area to what it once was – but is partnering with other elected officials and civic leaders to assess what can be done to prevent such damage from a storm from happening again. For example, Goldfeder – as well as numerous Rockaway residents – have called on Mayor Bloomberg to direct personnel to conduct repairs to the Jamaica Bay seawall, which runs along the northern side of the Rockaway Peninsula. The wall – also known as a bulkhead – serves as a barrier for homes against storms and rising sea levels, and Goldfeder said that it took such a beating in Sandy that it is on the verge of collapse.
No matter the red tape hurdles he must jump or the banks he must fight to work on homes foreclosed after being abandoned by residents following the hurricane, Goldfeder said he will not rest until every person who has been affected has his or her life back to normal.
A lifelong Queens resident, the legislator has long known the crucial roles neighbors plays in one another’s lives – and, with Sandy, that importance of community was a saving grace.
“It was literally families helping families and neighbors,” Goldfeder said.
By Kerry Goleski
