Publisher Susan Locke works on the computer in the ruined offices of The Rockaway Wave, while general manager Sandy Bernstein tries to keep the phone lines working.
Never has the name of The Wave, the weekly newspaper of the Rockaways, seemed so apt.
“Wave of Fire, Wall of Water,” read the headline atop The Wave on Friday. It was its first print edition since Hurricane Sandy sent over four feet of water crashing through its offices on Rockaway Beach Boulevard five weeks ago, forcing the newspaper to stop publishing for the first time in its 119-year history.
Like everybody else fighting to recover from the storm, many of the employees had lost almost everything. Like everyone else, they needed cars, electricity and a dry place to sleep.
Like other local companies, The Wave has had to cut back on labor. It may be in the news business, but it is also a small business, and the staff members knew it would live or die by how quickly they could start putting out a newspaper again.
Read more on the NY Times City Room blog.
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