Seawalls for Sea Gate: Sandy prompts calls for construction

Keith Gordon's house in the private Sea Gate community on the tip of Coney Island in Brooklyn, the one in which he grew up, lived in for 40 years and raised a family, is now just a pile of rubble.

"It's a tragedy that I could never think in the whole world, would happen," he told us as he stood on the beach staring at the debris that remains. Most of the house has vanished, with a few open rooms exposed to the sky amid the jumble of wooden beams and concrete.

"I had a wood bulkhead, a solid wood bulkhead with old railroad ties and a cement top," he explained, as protection against the nearby surf. The seawall held up to other storms for four decades, but fell victim to Sandy.

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