Property over people? New York City’s $52bn plan to save itself from the sea

A decade after Hurricane Sandy, critics of a federal plan that allocates billions to protect the region from rising waters are calling it a failure of imagination'

The retired FDNY firefighter Patrick Kilgallen remembers the night well. In late October 2012, the approach of Hurricane Sandy up the US Eastern Seaboard coincided with a spring tide, propelling a surge of storm water that crashed into New York City and its surrounds, causing more than $70bn (56bn) in damages, mostly from flooding.

When water from the ocean and bayside came coursing up the street, Kilgallen was with his family at home, one block in from the wooden boardwalk, at Rockaway Beach - a barrier island off Queens that faces the Atlantic Ocean and has become known as the Irish Riviera" for its large population of Irish-American families, including many New York City firefighters and police officers.