They’re tearing down the Wendy’s on Queens Boulevard that stood in for the fictional “McDowell’s” from the film Coming To America. (Photo via Flickr)
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SIX MONTHS HENCE David Friedman and John Makely of NBC News present before and after panoramic photos of Breezy Point, Queens — a New York City neighborhood ravaged by fire and flood after Superstorm Sandy.
Long Island City, Queens.
UNBURIED Locally-hired contractors work to clean sand, deposited by the storm surge of Superstorm Sandy, out of a public pool in the Rockaways section of Queens, New York City on Nov. 27. Reuters reports that New York and New Jersey will need to spend at least $71 billion to effect repairs and prevent damage from similar storms in the future. (Photo: Lucas Jackson / Reuters via NBC News)
AT ARMS U.S. Navy Seabee EOCN Courtney McCormack grabs an armful of debris from a home in Breezy Point, Queens, a community ravaged by superstorm Sandy. McCormack was one member of a Navy battalion that descended on the neighborhood on Veteran’s Day. (Photo: John Makely / NBC News)
When night falls in the Rockaways, the hoods come out. Ever since Sandy strafed the Queens peninsula and tore up the boardwalk, it’s become an often lawless place where cops are even scarcer than electrical power and food.
Locals say they are arming themselves with guns, baseball bats, booby traps — even a bow and arrow — to defend against looters.
Thugs have been masquerading as Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) workers, knocking on doors in the dead of night. But locals say the real workers have been nowhere in sight, causing at least one elected official — who fears a descent into anarchy if help doesn’t arrive soon — to call for the city to investigate the utility.
Further exacerbating desperate conditions, it could take at least a month to repair the the bridge that connects the Rockaways to the city subway system, officials said.
“We booby-trapped our door and keep a baseball bat beside our bed,” said Danielle Harris, 34, rummaging through donated supplies as children rode scooters along half-block chunk of the boardwalk that had marooned into the middle of Beach 91st St. “We heard gunshots for three nights in a row,” said Harris, who believed they came from the nearby housing projects.
… Gunshots and slow-rolling cars have become a common fixture of the night since Hurricane Sandy.
“I would take a looter with a bow. If I felt threatened I would definitely use it,” said Keone Singlehurst, 42 (pictured above). “Its like the Wild West. A borderline lawless situation.”
(Photo: Mark Morales / NYDN)
Fletcher Harris, of Rockaway Park, warms himself by a flaming oil barrel on 118th Street, October 31st. Parts of New York City outside Manhattan, including Staten Island, Coney Island in Brooklyn and The Rockaways in Queens, were completely devastated by superstorm Sandy, destroying homes, businesses and knocking gas stations offline. “No one knows we’re here,” one Coney Island resident told a reporter from WCBS 880, a local news radio station. (Photo: Adrian Fussell / Reportage by Getty Images via The New Yorker)
People raised an American flag amidst the wreckage of homes in Breezy Point, Queens. (Photo: Shannon Stapleton / Reuters via The New York Times)
INFERNAL People walked by homes burned down in the Breezy Point section of Queens, NY. More than 110 homes were destroyed, with another two dozen severely damaged, after fire broke out late Monday evening — the night Hurricane Sandy made landfall. Firefighters were unable to make their way through flooded streets as a storm surge also struck the neighborhood. (Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images via The New York Times)
NY1 NEWS: New York City struck by two tornadoes on Thursday - one in Brooklyn and the other in Queens
Weather officials confirmed tonight that two tornadoes touched down in New York City yesterday, as residents citywide continue to clean up damage and local lawmakers build their case for FEMA funding.
The National Weather Service said that the first tornado touched down in Park Slope, Brooklyn with winds of 80 mph after 5 p.m. Thursday and traveled two miles northeast.
The second tornado touched down about two-and-a-half miles south of Flushing, Queens and traveled north to Bayside with winds of up to 100 mph, before lifting over the waters. Middle Village and Forest Hills, Queens were the neighborhoods hit hardest.
The National Weather Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Office of Emergency Management conducted flyovers and land surveys in Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens before coming to its conclusions.
The Bronx had a tornado earlier this year and Brooklyn had a tornado back in 2007.
(Source: ny1news.com)
Residents surveyed the damage along Utopia Parkway in Queens, where multiple trees down and wires were knocked down by the storm. At least one person was killed. (Photo: Theodorakis / New York Daily News)
WINDWHIPPED The New York City area was battered Thursday afternoon by a fierce storm that killed one person in Queens, snarled commuter rail service, and knocked down trees in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. The storm and its aftereffects bore many of the hallmarks of a tornado, with the tops of trees sheared off and fixtures pulled off roofs, but National Weather Service officials were still analyzing the data to determine whether it should be classified as such. Above, the skies over Park Slope, Brooklyn following the brunt of the storm. (Photo by Daniel Barry for the New York Times; caption info via the Times)
IN THEIR SOLITUDE Forest Park in Queens, yesterday. (Photo by Kirsten Lupe for the New York Times)
