Anniversary of Sandy devastation recalls Red Hook rebound
Those who rode out storm misjudged height of surges
On that blustery October afternoon, a few days before Halloween 2012, the forecasts were grim. Mandatory evacuation orders were in place for nearly the entire neighborhood of Red Hook, Brooklyn. With newscasters and city officials warning that Superstorm Sandy could bring historic devastation, business owners grabbed the last of what they could and evacuated by the 5 p.m. curfew.
Some stayed to ride out the storm. As she watched the water lap over the shoreline, Tone Balzano Johansen, owner of the iconic bar, Sunny’s, went down to the basement to put valuables on a table. She recalls that for a moment, it was eerily calm. Around 9:30 p.m., at high tide and with a full moon, the sea lifted. A storm surge of more than 14 feet sent a cascade of seawater rushing into Red Hook.
As Johansen worked in the basement, she heard a loud “pop.” A window shattered. Water gushed in with a ferocious velocity. “I had to get ahead of it. I could see the electric meters right there. There are two dangers: You can be electrocuted, and you can get trapped. Zapped and trapped, and you’re done.” She ran up the stairs. “It was like I was flying. I very narrowly made it out of there.”