New Yorker Prays God Will Save Her Home From Rising Seas

When Hurricane Sandy came, Deborah Star Reed stayed home. Irene, the year before, had been over-hyped. Her 1919 concrete house was left unscathed by Donna in 1960 and the “Big One” of 1938.

So, on Oct. 29, 2012, the retired construction worker was munching on spare ribs with a friend, having ignored the evacuation warnings, when the first wave crashed into her home at the edge of New York’s Jamaica Bay. Hours later, hip-deep in water next to a bobbing piano, she began to pray.