Photographers Blog

Breezy Point, New York

By Shannon Stapleton

Driving into the city I was listening to NPR talking about it being the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy.

At first I couldn’t believe it had been six months already, and then I thought more about it and it seemed like years ago. The last time I was in Breezy Point and the Rockaways not much had changed.

The area of Breezy Point was still littered with fire and storm damaged homes throughout the seaside community. Arriving today the specific area that was ravaged by fire was completely different. The remains of homes had been taken away and the land flattened and filled with sand.

Shells of houses’ foundations and patriotic flags were all to be seen. A few heavy construction vehicles were busy working and served as the only real sign of life around the area.

I made a photo of a man inside a home in silhouette that for me defined what I was seeing. A once lively seaside community that in the past would be preparing for another summer by the sea is now a bit of a ghost town with few residents back to welcome spring and cherish another summer at the beach.

Superstorm Sandy slammed the U.S. East Coast on October 29, causing widespread destruction in coastal New York and New Jersey. One month later, Reuters photographers describe their working conditions during the storm and the aftermath they witnessed – including tragic stories and the resilience of people in their community.

Multimedia production by Jillian Kitchener

Atlantic City, New Jersey

By Tom Mihalek

My assignment covering Hurricane Sandy began Sunday, October 28 and ended on Tuesday night November 13. Both the first and last day had something in common: A flat tire on my vehicle caused by a nail or screw from the debris left by Sandy’s flood waters in the different areas I covered.

In the days I spent photographing the preparations against the approaching storm in Atlantic City, to the recovery efforts being made in Seaside Heights, a resort beach town literally blasted by Sandy, I saw destruction on a scale that was staggering. Having covered the 1991 Halloween “Perfect Storm” that hit southern New Jersey among other regions, I can say that was nothing when compared to the damaged brought to central New Jersey’s beach communities by Sandy, the “FrankenStorm”.

What began as an assignment to cover Sandy’s mayhem for Reuters, soon became a personal journey of re-discovering the goodness, humanity, and brother and sisterhood in so many of us. This is something I will never forget.