The power of a story is often in the details that stay within your mind. These details create a window into an experience.

“People rescue each other. They build shelter and community kitchens and ways to deal with lost children and eventually rebuild one way or another.” — Rebecca Solnit

In the fall of 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast. The Rockaways, in Queens, New York, suffered immense damage. The community slowly rebuilt in the years following. Rockaway Tales is an on-site storytelling app that gives voice to that experience. Through personal recollections that can be heard while walking through the neighborhood, residents speak about their experience. These are stories of hardship but also resiliency. Sharing these stories brings home the human cost of events like Hurricane Sandy, the determination to preserve connection, and the desire to rebuild. The larger problem of climate change is acknowledged through the human cost and effect of this event.

map of the Rockaways in Queens, New York with red Xs marking story sites