#34 staten Island after hurricane sandy

I have a few sculptures on Midland Beach, Staten Island. I know that the area was devastated in late 2012 during Hurricane Sandy. Perhaps because of the protective effect of Sandy Hook and Breezy Point, the damage to the area was more flooding than impact damage. Still, many homes were devastated.

For the last two years I've wondered how my big Sea Turtle sculpture fared. It's right on the beach, on a lovely multi-coloured pad. I feared that the pad, at least, had been torn up by the storm surge.  The turtle weighed most of 500 kg, so I thought it might have stayed upright.

It was with some relief that I discovered that the Midland Beach Turtle site was used for a community gathering after the storm, as it was mostly intact.

The annual gathering, held in the Midland Beach Turtle area for the first time in 2013, as the usual place was not yet repaired.

It's fun to think of this as a community gathering place, as well as  a cool place to get wet. Here's another view. Kids playing in the fountain. It's funny to think that my daughter, Caitlin and I sweated through a heat wave to make this sculpture. I modelled this directly in epoxy clay, which, at 38C, was setting unbelievably fast, forcing us to work at a feverish pace. We're both relatively skinny to this day. 

It looks like the nearby pier, Ocean Breeze fishing pier, the largest pier on the Atlantic remained intact. In 2003 I made the tooling for the fishing rod holders. Did we cast these in aluminum? They must be well coated to avoid corrosion from the salt water.

tooling for the sea horse fishing rod holders. I made the tail in 2 pieces so that these could be bolted on to the pipe that runs the length of the railing.

There are quite a number of these sea horse fishing rod holders on the Ocean Breeze pier. They seem to be appreciated. Designed by Mike Browne of NYC Parks.

The Ocean Breeze pier was closed for some months, but the main damage to the area seems to have been displacement of ramps and railings.

So many residents in this neighbourhood had their homes destroyed that it's hard to imagine the area rising from the damage, but I guess it has. It is a relief to know that the public elements remain intact to provide those important gathering places.