When Justin Freedhand returned to his Belle Harbor office after Hurricane Sandy he found a pile of smoldering ruins.

“The embers of each building just blew into the building next to it. They were like fireballs going from one building to the another,” said Freedhand, describing the scene in the Rockaway, Queens, neighborhood. “When I first saw the office, it was just smoldering rubble. The fire hadn’t even burnt out.”