Angelo Deangelis has lived in Sea Gate, a gated beachside community on the southwestern tip of Brooklyn, with his family for 31 years since immigrating to the United States from Italy. On Monday night, when Hurricane Sandy hit New York, he planned to stay in his home facing the beach and weather the storm. About twenty minutes before the wind and flooding that battered the neighborhood reached its peak, waters began to surround his home and Mr. Deangelis realized the hurricane was worse than anything he had expected. He went to his sister’s house nearby.
“The waves they were hitting my boarded up veranda and the water was coming up from the front of the house and, on the third shot, I went down, I shut the electricity and I just went by my sister’s on Laurel Avenue,” Mr. Deangelis told Politicker today.
Though he abandoned his home, Mr. Deangelis left a webcam filming as the waters overtook his house. He and his family watched live as their house was destroyed.
“You know, 31 years in the house, and 31 years in this country and all of it is gone,” he explained as he stood in front of the home, which had a red sticker on the door declaring it “unsafe” to enter and in danger of collapse.
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