Sandy task force to examine recovery efforts in wake of storm

<p>Suffolk County Legislator DuWayne Gregory is spearheading an effort to appoint a Sandy Recovery Assessment Task Force that will examine the last five years of rebuilding to figure out what went well and what can be improved.</p>

News 12 Staff

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Oct 28, 2017, 4:30 PM

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Updated 2,611 days ago

Suffolk County Legislator DuWayne Gregory is spearheading an effort to appoint a Sandy Recovery Assessment Task Force that will examine the last five years of rebuilding to figure out what went well and what can be improved.

The task force will consist of about 20 members, and will study the recovery effort over the next six months.

Gregory (D-Amityville) says far too many homes are still waiting to be fixed.

"Eleven-thousand Long Island families were included in the New York Rising recovery program, and 3,400 [homes] still aren't repaired," Gregory told News 12 Long Island.

The experience has been agonizing for Amityville resident Skip Wade. The home he's owned for three decades is still under construction and uninhabitable – five long years after it was decimated by Superstorm Sandy.

"The amount of frustration, paperwork, and just the whole process is unbearable," said Wade.

His home was recently elevated by New York Rising, and won't be ready for a few more months.

The task force's goal is to set up a roadmap for future storm recovery. But it's a plan residents like Wade say should have been in place long before Superstorm Sandy.

Sandy struck the region on Oct. 29, 2012.