Even as the city struggles to return to normal in Sandy’s aftermath, New Yorkers can’t and won’t forget the dozens of their neighbors who didn’t make it through.
“For all we do to recover, it’s fair to say we can’t replace the lives of the people lost in the storm,” Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday in somber remarks to the city.
Some were heroes — like NYPD Officer Artur Kasprzak, who drowned after saving seven members of a family on Staten Island who’d been trapped in their flooding South Beach home.
Kasprzak was just 29, and was off-duty. But we doubt he thought twice about his final act, which should long resonate in the hearts of all New Yorkers.
Some of Sandy’s victims refused to evacuate — and paid the ultimate price for thinking they could weather the storm in the safety of their homes.
Alas.
But so many victims lost their lives because of sheer bad luck.
There was Tony Laino, 29, of Flushing, who was killed by a tree that crashed into his home and crushed him in his bed.
And high-school teacher Jessie Streich-Kest and her boyfriend, Jacob Vogelman, both 24, who were killed by a falling tree while walking their dog on a quiet Brooklyn street.
And, of course, no one would call the residents of Breezy Point, Queens, lucky — nearly half that seaside neighborhood was burned to rubble thanks to the hurricane. But its residents fled the fires and survived — and in such small favors there is something for which to be grateful.
No, there’s nothing even remotely fair in all this. And there is no explaining fate.
But New Yorkers have two great charges if they wish to honor their friends and neighbors who passed away this week.
First, to remember.
Then, to rebuild.