A Week After Sandy, Here is Red Hook

It was quiet in Red Hook and shockingly still.

Ikea was nearly deserted even with the countless homes and businesses suddenly in need of replacement furnishings. Of the intermittent Ikea patrons, no one admitted to being a hurricane victim. An employee suggested the cause of the sparse crowds was the difficulty of being able to fill gas tanks to drive to the store.

Or perhaps hurricane victims have been otherwise occupied.

A few blocks from Ikea, along Van Dyke Street, trash has begun to accumulate on curbs. Warped furniture and scrap wood peaks through mountains of stuffed trash bags in storefronts while employees—only recently back to work—sort and clean.

Mark Murphy of Pochron Studios, a print art studio, was visibly dejected about the current state and future of the business he runs with his wife. Damaged and ruined art pieces hung in the backroom of the studio, and the artists, he said, did not yet know.

James Buscarello of Jabus Building Corporation, which has been in business for 30 years, estimated $100,000 in damage for his construction company including two totaled trucks. But still, he felt lucky compared to some of businesses around him. Since his wife, Deborah, moved all of their records to the second floor after a flood about 15 years ago, they were able to apply for loans for recovery help.

The Buscarellos are not sure about the actual extent their damage, and their insurance agency, Max J. Pollack & Sons, located on Van Brunt Street, is flooded and remains closed.

Mrs. Buscarello speculates that many restaurants will not be able to recover from the devastation because they are unable to open, and so cannot pay their workers.

She thinks that Red Hook will soon be “a ghost town”.

As to their own path to recovery, she looked ahead blankly and said she was afraid to think about how long it will take.