Stony Point's storm-damaged homes face demolition

• Stony Point is taking steps to demolish homes damaged by Superstorm Sandy.
• Officials say those homes are hazardous and have to be taken down.
• New homes in the area will look totally different because of FEMA requirements.
• Longtime residents feel sad because the tight-knit community began to crumble.

STONY POINT – For generations, families in the tightly knit hamlet of Grassy Point shared a love of life along the Hudson River's shore.

But that changed in October 2012, when the same river residents grew up swimming in and socializing along turned angry, surging over its banks and destroying rows of houses.

About 120 homes along Stony Point's shore, including about 70 mobile homes in the Ba Mar Mobile Home Park, were swept up by the devastation brought to the region by Superstorm Sandy.

Most of the flooded homes have been either restored or demolished. But nine boarded-up structures remain, reminding passers-by of the storm's destruction.

Under the town's initiative, those homes will be soon demolished, forever changing the community's character.

Supervisor Geoffrey Finn said the homes are on the verge of falling down, especially after the winter's heavy snow.

"We want to make sure that people who live in the surrounding area are safe," Finn said, explaining why the town is moving forward with the demolitions. "Children are curious. They may say, 'Hey, let's go and see what's inside of this home.' We want to make sure that these homes don't collapse on them and kill them."

Since the town notified the property owners of its intentions in May, many of them came forward and filed applications to demolish the homes on their own, Finn said. In the coming weeks, town officials will be discussing what to do with the rest, including two homes that were taken by a bank in foreclosure after the storm. Finn said he was optimistic the cost of demolition will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in case the owners' insurance doesn't cover it.

Stony Point's riverfront, particularly Grassy Point, was once a thriving community that had its own church and post office. The hamlet is known as the birthplace of former Postmaster General James Farley, whose father was a brickmaker. Although the area lost its vibrancy in recent years, its historic atmosphere remained until Sandy destroyed the century-old homes, locals said.

Stephen Beckerle, 58, whose Beach Road home was flooded but suffered only limited damage, called the storm a "game changer."

"These were the families who lived there generations: the Brooks, Allisons, Andersons. ... They've been out there way before I got down there. ... There has never been anything that bad down there," Beckerle said.

Olive Herring, 89, of Grassy Point Road called the October 2012 storm "unprecedented." Because her home was built on higher ground compared with her neighbors, her home was spared from flooding, she said.

"It took away old houses," Herring said, adding that she feels sad every time she passes by the damaged homes on the river. "It's hard because we know all the families who had those homes."

Robert J. Dubois, 54, said his late father, Robert W. Dubois, grew up in a River Road home that was gutted by Sandy. The two-story structure facing the Hudson is now owned by his cousin, Kenneth Nicholas, who recently notified the town of his plans to demolish and rebuild the house.

"I had a lot of fun growing up here," Dubois said. "I swam in the water, on the beach, when I was a kid."

Dubois said his father told him about a storm in the 1930s when he walked through chest-high water to rescue some paperwork for his uncle, Ray Dubois, who owned a Grassy Point bar called Ray's Chateau.

"He felt electricity going through his body because they didn't shut off the power," Dubois recalled his father telling him, adding that although it was a bad storm, the damage caused seemed small in comparison with Sandy's aftermath.

"This storm really demolished foundations of the houses. It was something really unusual," Dubois said. "It was more than a 100-year storm. There was no storm this bad in 100 years."

The neighborhood is drastically changing as remaining homeowners are raising their houses by at least 14 feet to avoid higher flood insurance premiums. The newly built homes will be more resistant to future floods, but some longtime residents express mixed feelings about the change.

Tom Schassler, 80, of Stony Point, whose grandmother moved to Grassy Point from Ireland in the late 19th century, said what's been lost in the storm was the camaraderie of those longtime families.

"Progress is a two-edged sword, really," Schassler said. "Good people lived here. They were hard workers. It's a bitter pill."

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