The furniture is still wet and the curtains are black with mold in Pura Gonzalo's Far Rockaway home, where the 89-year-old Cuban immigrant says she has throat problems and feels exhausted.

WSJ: 3 months after Sandy, victims waiting for relief

"We had just finished our first day on the subway, " Mr. Fleischner said of the storm surge that devastated the film's above-ground Rockaway locations, "pretty much demolished" the director's own home and knocked out train service for weeks.

WSJ: The Longest Subway Ride

While some residents of Staten Island have said they planned to take advantage of government buyouts of their flood-prone properties, most of the city's coastal residents from Breezy Point to Rockaway Beach have indicated they will stay at the shore.

WSJ: Reshaping Shore Homes

Despite being unsatisfied with the city's response to the damage wrought by Sandy in Far Rockaway, Mr. Fougere said he was voting for Mr. Richards because he was a familiar face around the community.

WSJ: Sandy Shapes Council Race in Rockaways

His two-story house in the Far Rockaway section of Queens hasn't had working heat since Superstorm Sandy's floodwaters destroyed the oil burner in the basement.

WSJ: 3 months after Sandy, victims waiting for relief

"Out there" is Breezy Point, the westernmost part of the Rockaway peninsula in Queens, a fish-rich stretch of water that's the unofficial separation of the Atlantic from the harbor of New York.

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