N.Y. State buying back Sandy homes

By Lia Eustachewich

November 19, 2013 | 6:05am

Photo: Reuters/Lucas Jackson

The state is buying as many 129 more homes ravaged by Hurricane Sandy, Gov. Cuomo announced Monday.

“There are parcels along the water that really belong to Mother Nature,” Cuomo said during a visit to the battered Ocean Breeze section of Staten Island.

“She may only come to visit once every couple of years but once she comes, she reclaims the property that is hers.”

Homes there will join 420 in Oakwood Beach, also on Staten Island, and 613 in Suffolk County eligible for state buyouts, funded through federal grants.

The state intends to maintain the properties as open space or coastal buffer zones.

Many homeowners like Joe Herkind, 51, were relieved.

Herkind slept in his car for three months after his two Naughton Avenue homes in Ocean Breeze were destroyed. “Today is the first step toward closure that my neighborhood has received since October 29, 2102,” he said.

Dianne Hague, 70, said she’ll be applying for three family-owned homes. Although a fifth-generation resident, Hague said it was time to leave Staten Island.

“At this point, can I do this again? No. I’m a widow, I’m a senior. I can’t,” she said.