Nonprofit Portside New York remembers impact of Superstorm Sandy

It has been 10 years since Superstorm Sandy tore through the city, and a local nonprofit is remembering the tragic day and the work that still needs to be done in the aftermath.

News 12 Staff

Oct 26, 2022, 4:20 PM

Updated 714 days ago

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It has been 10 years since Superstorm Sandy tore through the city, and a local nonprofit is remembering the tragic day and the work that still needs to be done in the aftermath.
Carolina Salguero knows the toll of Sandy's raging water all too well. As the head of Portside New York, she stayed aboard the historic Mary A. Whalen ship the night of the storm to protect it.
"We had a floating dock that was destroyed. We're trying to restore the engine on the Mary Whalen now. The final damage sheet was $290,000," she says.
But not letting that get them down, Portside quickly took on the needs of the community coming ashore and creating a small business recovery center.
"We had a computer center for people who didn't have it at home as a result of the storm. We brought in a lot of legal aid," she adds.
A decade later, Salguero is still fighting to secure emergency relief funding from FEMA.
"We didn't finish the FEMA project in 2018 because we had to do a business plan. So now we've come back to FEMA to ask for another extension but also a changed scope of work."
In the meantime, she says the nonprofit is hoping to raise money to finish the project.