Adopt A House's One Year Event Draws Hundreds to Remember Sandy

A crowd of over 300 people packed into Lindenhurst Village Square park on Tuesday evening to mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy making landfall, bringing a devastating burst of winds and storm surge that destroyed and damaged thousands of homes along the Long Island and New Jersey shorelines.

A photo slideshow, produced by Adopt A House executive director Jen Mackie Aulino, was shown during the twenty minute event, showing scenes from the day of the storm, the weeks after and the rebuilding efforts since Sandy struck on October 29, 2012.

 "We wanted to really reflect on the past year and how days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months," Mackie Aulino said to the crowd. "It's been a pretty rough year for most of the people I've been speaking to and its been a long haul."

Adopt A House handed out plastic LED candles to Sandy survivors, each representing something different – red representing families still displaced, blue representing those back in their homes and green for families mid-transition with homes not yet finished.

"Red means power, strength and courage – we know everyone with those candles have those qualities," said Mackie Aulino. "Green is for those who are home, but not yet quite home. And blue is for calm and tranquility, and we look forward to having everyone having the same color blue."

Mackie Aulino asked the families to place the candles in their windows to show awareness of where the area was now 365 days later.

"It's hard to believe on a nice, tranquil night like tonight we faced quite a bit of fury... none one of us will forget," said Deputy Mayor Kevin McCaffrey, who spoke at the event. "When the chips were down, Lindenhurst stood up tall and answered the call."

At the conclusion of the video, which came with raucous applause, Mackie Aulino thanked the crowd for not only coming out to the event, but for keeping the hope alive for those struggling through the storm.

"Hopefully next year, we'll all have blue candles," she said. "Keep the faith and get this done."