Seth Wenig/Associated Press
John Toto, right, worked with friends to demolish his house in Midland Beach, Staten Island. The home was swept off its foundation.
New York City is moving to demolish hundreds of homes in the neighborhoods hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy, after a grim assessment of the storm-ravaged coast revealed that many structures were so damaged they pose a danger to public safety and other buildings nearby.
About 200 homes will be bulldozed in the coming weeks and months, almost all of them one- and two-family houses on Staten Island, in Queens and Brooklyn. That is in addition to 200 houses that are already partially or completely burned down, washed away or otherwise damaged; those sites will also be cleared.
The Buildings Department is still inspecting nearly 500 other damaged structures, some of which could also be razed, according to the commissioner, Robert L. LiMandri.
Mr. LiMandri, in an interview late last week, said neither he nor his staff could recall the city ever undertaking this kind of broad reshaping of its neighborhoods.
"We've never had this scale before," Mr. LiMandri said. "This is what New Yorkers have read about in many other places and have never seen, so it is definitely unprecedented. And by the same token, when you walk around in these communities, people are scared and worried, and we're trying to make every effort to be up front and share with them what they need to do."
No decisions have been made about rebuilding in the storm-battered areas — a complicated question that would involve not only homeowners, but also insurers and officials in the state, local and federal governments. Some of the houses that are being torn down were built more than a half-century ago as summer bungalows, then winterized and expanded. Current building codes would likely prohibit reconstruction of similar homes.
The Buildings Department expects to have a more precise assessment by early this week of how many buildings must be razed.
And then there is the emotional toll. Many of the homes set to be knocked down are in tight-knit working- and middle-class neighborhoods, where they are often handed down from generation to generation.
"Listen, we want public safety, and we have to move on, but you have to give some people — — " Mr. LiMandri said, pausing, then adding: "I mean, look, a lot of these are people's homes that, probably, they may have even grown up in it, and it was their father's house. I mean, that's the kind of communities we're talking about."
One challenge facing the department is reaching owners of the homes facing demolition. Many are now living elsewhere — with friends or family or in hotels or shelters — and are barred from entering the houses because they are unsafe.
The city is trying to proceed with sensitivity, with Buildings Department staff members walking the streets in these neighborhoods, trying to track down those affected through their friends and neighbors and urging them to go to one of the six recovery centers set up by the city and to register their damaged homes by calling 311.
But, in some cases, where the danger is imminent, the department will issue an emergency declaration to bulldoze the buildings, even if the owners have not been contacted.
"This is not easy, in this case, because of all these displaced people, but we're going to do the best we can, but we may have to move on it if we can't find them," Mr. LiMandri said.
Eric A. Ulrich, a Republican city councilman from Queens who represents Breezy Point, Belle Harbor, Broad Channel and some of the other affected neighborhoods, said that he had not been notified of the demolitions, but that the forced destruction of people's homes would come as a terrible shock.
"My constituents have been through so much, and they are just so distraught, and if that were to happen and if they were told that the home that they grew up in or they bought has to be taken against their will, it's just devastating news," he said.
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