NEW YORK — Nine years after Superstorm Sandy slammed the city, Cynthia Muriel still vividly remembers the impact the storm had and the rebuilding efforts that followed. 

“All of this was empty the cars were everywhere,” Muriel recalled.

She has lived in Knickerbocker Village for over 10 years. The development lines Cherry and Monroe Streets in Lower Manhattan, just blocks away from the East River. That’s where flood waters rose.

What You Need To Know

  • Hurricane Sandy flooded buildings in lower Manhattan nine years ago this week. Since then, millions have been spent on upgrades to make communities more resilient

  • Knickerbocker Village basements were flooded damaging tenant’s storage units, and mechanicals which knocked out power for months

  • Knickerbocker Village received a 33.5 million dollar grant through the city’s Build it Back program for resiliency upgrades
  • According to the Department of Housing Prevention and Development, the Build it Back Multifamily Program assisted more than 19,600 households in 143 developments throughout the city

“We live on the first floor. Thank God there is a basement, so the basement flooded so it didn’t touch our apartment,” Muriel said.  

“This was a storage door, that was a storage door, so I had storage in here,” said Tammy Cruz, a ninth floor tenant showing where flood water entered storage units. 

Not only did flood waters tear into places like Cruz’s basement storage unit, but it entered the buildings mechanical areas, damaging equipment and leaving tenants in the dark with no elevator service.

“That was months, it was horrible,” Cruz said.

Knickerbocker Village received a $33.5 million grant through the city’s Build it Back program for resiliency upgrades. According to the city’s Department of Housing Prevention and Development, the Build it Back Multifamily Program assisted more than 19,600 households in 143 developments throughout the city. 

“I’ve seen improvements. Those medal gratings. They put that there on the ground floor on the other side,” Cruz said. 

The development says with funding they were able to purchase back-up generators, install heavy-duty flood-proof walls, replace electrical equipment and fortify boiler rooms in the basement. 

The Knickerbocker also had 44 submarine style doors installed to protect the mechanicals that were damaged by Sandy. 

“It’s going to keep happening, global warming is real and the storms are only getting worse so it’s definitely going to keep occurring,” Cruz emphasized. 

While billions of dollars have been spent to repair property throughout the city, Cruz is hoping these efforts will help to withstand future extreme weather events scientist attribute to climate change.

“It’s not only fear of the unknown, its fear of the inevitable,” she added. 

Despite concerns, tenants like Muriel say they’ll never give up their waterfront homes. She’s confidant New York will always recover.

“No matter what you do to us we’re going to come back, fighting,” said Muriel.