One year later — How Hurricane Sandy changed everything for Linda Marini and Jen Correa

Hurricane Sandy devastated miles of New York coastline exactly one year ago when just like this year, many of us were preparing to run the ING NYC marathon.

Hurricane Sandy devastated miles of New York coastline exactly one year ago when just like this year, many of us were preparing to run the ING NYC marathon. When water rushed in devastating homes, businesses and entire neighborhoods, it pulled out with it the hopes, dreams, and livelihoods of thousands of people. Among them were Linda Marini, co-owner of Barbarini Mercato in NYC and Jen Correa, a runner and blogger. We’ve kept track of Linda and Jen over this life-changing year and spoke with them this week to find out what life is like a year after Sandy.

Linda, what’s life been like since Sandy took out your business?

It’s been a long journey and we’ve been through a lot. The good news is that we’ve signed on to open a new restaurant and market in a new development in an exciting area close to where we were before. We’re probably not opening until next spring because everything takes so much time. A lot of the hardships we encountered this year were because nothing like this had ever happened before and in many ways the city wasn’t prepared to deal with it. Since we’re not rebuilding in the location of our previous business, we got shut out of a lot of the programs available for Sandy victims. We also went through a business split. Previously, we had partners and people react to disasters differently. In the end, we decided we had to rebuild on our own.

We had so many things working against us. Our income dropped which made us look unappealing to banks that could give us loans. After having been in business for seven years and investing all that time and money, it was hard to walk away. Most businesses take seven years to reach their peak. We were growing and expanding and just when we reached that seven-year mark, Hurricane Sandy happened and all our effort floated away. We didn’t want to give up on all that though so we decided we’d exhaust all our resources and find a way to reopen. We had to find the right space and we knew we wanted it to be on higher ground. We also wanted to stay in the community where we live and where we’d invested so much time. When we finally secured a space, we had to secure a loan. Since we’d lost our entire business, we didn’t have a lot of money to put down upfront. It was really challenging, but we finally found the right match.

You mentioned last time we spoke that you were overwhelmed with community support. How are you now?

At the time of need, a lot of people come at you and you have to make a lot of wise decisions. We are carrying on because of all the support we’ve received from friends and neighbors. All the encouragement is very heartwarming. Along with that though, there are some people who are seeking opportunities and trying to take advantage of the situation. It took a lot of work to to sort that out. In the end though, we’ve found a good landlord and made decisions that felt right for the entire family. We’ve all had to make sacrifices. For me, that means I have no babysitting help. I do all my business and back of the house bookkeeping during their school hours and after they go to bed. I think it’s what moms do everywhere.

How are your kids?

The twins are ten now and we also have a seven-year-old. They saw what we lost and how the community came together to help us. They feel like we have to help out too. They’ve been very helpful at home. I think that ultimately, through all they’ve seen happen to us, they’re learning some valuable life lessons that even when you’re facing discouragement and hard things happen to you, you have to believe in what you’re doing. You have to keep going and you have to take risks.

For a sneak peak at Linda and Claudio’s new business adventure, check out the website for Da Claudio, opening spring 2014.

Jen Correa is a runner and blogger (Mom’s Gotta Run) whose Staten Island home was devastated by Sandy. When we first met last year, she was literally left with only her front steps. She and her two children evacuated before the storm hit, but her husband, Pedro stayed behind to guard the house. When the house was washed off the foundation, he swam out an upstairs window, grabbed hold of his neighbor’s floating roof and held on until he reached high ground. Today, Jen and the rest of the Corea family live in a nearby apartment. They’re back to work and back in school and Jen’s training to run this year’s marathon with Team-EMC .

Jen, how’s training going?

I haven’t been able to train with the team because they’re all in the city, but I’ll be running with them hopefully. I’ve learned this training season that my limitations are mostly logistical. I just get my miles in the best I can.

What’s happening with work, the new place, everything?

We’re still living in the apartment we moved into a month after the storm. It just didn’t make sense to move again until we could get into our permanent home. The state is giving our whole neighborhood a buyout. That means they are buying our land for the pre-storm value. Whatever amount we receive, and we really have no idea at this point what they will be, will first go to pay back FEMA relief because those funds were paid out of the same monies. Then, we’ll pay off our remaining mortgage and if there’s anything left after that, then we can put that towards buying something else. We’re hoping that will happen next summer. In the meantime, we’re stuck paying rent on our apartment and the mortgage on the house that was destroyed. We had a moratorium on the mortgage for a little while, but Wells Fargo quit being understanding about that so for the last couple of months, we’ve been making regular mortgage payments as well as paying rent on the apartment. That’s been frustrating because we’re paying for a house we’ll never live in.

I’m back at work, which keeps me busy all day so I don’t have to think about stuff. Other times are kind of tough. There are a lot of reminders on the news of the one-year anniversary. You get very desensitized to it almost to the point where you don’t understand why people would think I’m so great because of what I went through. I mean, what did I do, what are people so impressed with? Then, I look back at some of the things we went through and realize I lived that. That was my house, my life, my neighborhood. It’s really strange. I guess this is part of the deal.

I remember your daycare was across the street and was washed away too.

The daycare reopened. Some things aren’t the same. There’s a playground that hasn’t been fixed. My son went back to school and he has a lot of friends that also lost a lot so in a sense, he’s going through everything with them. It’s kind of a whole new world in our neighborhood. You walk past houses that have been renovated and you see new siding and new garage doors. Then the house next door still has an X of tape or the window is boarded up. Nobody’s been in it. The mold hasn’t been taken out. This is what our neighborhood is like. I have a friend whose house is still just sitting there. They don’t know what to do. They gutted it and put something over the door so they don’t have squatters, but the nightmare isn’t over. People are still living through it. For most of us, it’s still every day.

Are you getting a lot of visits from media for the anniversary?

Yeah, sort of. I was on the host committee for the Staten Island Half-Marathon, which was a really awesome experience. The Road Runners Club also gave it a lot of marathon attention. If you go on the ING marathon site, they have a tab titled 26.2 stories of hope and I’m one of those. I was also in the stuff they produced for ABC. That’s kind of fun because it’s running related, not storm coverage.

Tell me about running for the team.

I spoke with Clancy a few months back and told her I couldn’t commit to the fundraising part because my head’s just not in it right now. As much as I want to give back, it wasn’t the time. She understood and said, “No problem, you’re always part of the team. Whatever you want to do is fine with us.” And I just thought, this is such a great team and such a great effort. Even though I haven’t been as involved and connected as I’d like, for me this is great. In my heart I’m running for someone else. I received so much help when I needed it and I’m doing this for everybody out there that needs help. It sounds cheesy, but the truth is there is a time to give and a time to take, in whatever order that presents in your life. Some people really need to be given to. Other people start with a whole lot, but then lose it. That’s a cycle. I now know both sides of that. I’m a working middle-class person. We owned a home and two cars and occasionally went on vacation. Then, within one day, we were homeless and shopping in a food bank. Nothing is guaranteed. If I can be doing something to help someone else, I’m happy. And clearly, what group is more important than mothers? I mean we’re it. Whatever we teach our children is what they’ll bring to the next generation.

Check out Jen’s blog, Mom’s Gotta Run here.