The proposal would have provided $3 billion in funding to reduce flood risk linked to climate chang
BY KRISTOFFER TIGUE, Inside Climate News
A firefighter stands among the remains of homes burned down in the Rockaway neighborhood of Queens during Hurricane Sandy on October 31, 2012. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Arlene Phipps’ string of bad luck started the night Hurricane Sandy crashed into New York’s coast.
Fierce winds pelted Phipps’ two-story home on New York City’s Rockaway Peninsula that day in 2012, and sea water flooded the first floor, where she ran her daycare center. The damage was so extensive, the city condemned the building, forcing Phipps and her family to live in a hotel for several years.
Then in 2017, Phipps’ husband died unexpectedly, leaving her with a more than $200,000 mortgage that drained her savings as she struggled to reestablish her livelihood.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do—I’m 66 years old, I have a heart condition,” Phipps said. “I’ve had one thing after another.”
Sandy killed 44 people and ultimately cost the city an estimated $19 billion in damages and lost economic activity, officials reported, with over 69,000 residences damaged and thousands of New Yorkers like Phipps forced to find new homes.
