We will rebuild, vow the families who have lost everything as they raise the Stars and Stripes at decimated Breezy Point

• Flag discovered by 16-year-old girl in the rubble of burnt out homes
• Governor Cuomo pledges to rebuild shattered community 'better than ever before'
• Inferno was sparked by downed power lines and spread through rows of apartments
• Fire engines could get nowhere near the cluster of burning buildings due to heavy flooding
• Blaze spread rapidly between homes with families stranded above the water
• Firefighters waded into chest-deep water and paddled boats into the flames to save people
• Rockaways in Queens was in a mandatory evacuation zone, but dozens decided to stay and weather the storm

The Stars and Stripes are raised over a burnt-out family home offering hope and courage to the devastated community of Breezy Point where residents today begin a massive clear-up operation in the wake of superstorm Sandy.
The flag was discovered buried in the rubble by a teenage girl whose family home was among 111 destroyed by a huge fire which ripped unchecked through a residential area in the Queens neighbourhood.
Volunteer firefighters were left helpless after the blaze broke out at around 8:15 p.m on Monday, as the widespread flooding meant they had no way of getting to the affected area.

Flag bearers: Residents of Breezy Point raise the Stars and Stripes above the wreckage of their homes as the massive cleanup in the wake of Superstorm Sandy gets underway

Too hard to bear: Neighbours Linda Strong (left) and Lucille Dwyer (Right) console each other as the survey the wreckage of their homes which were burned down in the wake of the superstorm

Desolation rows: A huge swathe of burnt houses stand among those that survived in Breezy Point (left) while two locals (right), whose homes were among those completely destroyed by the fire, hug and console each other  

With the fire station itself flooded, the volunteers were forced to patrol the streets in boats and kayaks saving those residents who had refused to heed the warnings and leave their homes.
Firefighters did not arrive until three hours later. They pumped floodwater straight onto the homes to douse the flames, but by that time a huge amount of damage had been done.
Jacqueline Lacovara, 16, who discovered the flag in the rubble, told the New York Post: 'We were all in shock. How could that survive? When I saw it, I knew that everyone would be able to get through this and rebuild.'
Yesterday Governor Cuomo visited the community to offer his support, pledging that all the homes would be rebuilt and that Breezy Point would rise again from the rubble.
He said: 'We’re not just going to rebuild this community — we’re going to build it up better than ever before.
'As dark and gloomy as it looks right now, we invite you all back. Come back in about a year and you’re going to see a better community than was here in the first place.'

Old Glory: The flag was discovered buried in the rubble by a teenage girl whose family home was among 111 destroyed by a huge fire which ripped unchecked through a residential area

Time to rebuild: Volunteer firefighters were left helpless when the blaze began at around 8:15 p.m on Monday, as the widespread flooding meant they had no way of getting to the affected area

Aftermath: The fire and floods brought devastation to the close-knit community but residents have rallied pledging to bounce back and rebuild

Help arrives: A Search and Rescue team trudges past storm-battered buildings on Rockaway Beach Blvd

Hard times: Orlando Fernandez, his wife and two young daughters stand outside of their burned down home on Rockaway Beach Blvd

Returning home: Residents of Breezy Point are brought to their homes on the back of an NYPD flatbed truck to retrieve their belongings in the aftermath of Sandy

Young and old: Their faces showing a steely determination, residents of Breezy Point are carried away from their fire damaged homes yesterday afternoon

Scene of devastation: In what could almost be said to resemble a warzone, a family embrace each other by the wreckage of their burnt out home in Breezy Point

Stunned: A elderly couple stand by the remains of their home in Breezy Point, Queens as they survey the extent of the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy

A firefighter checks over the remains of homes burnt out in the Breezy Point blaze which was sparked by a downed power cable

Local residents were carried to the remains of their homes on the back of  NYPD flatbed trucks. Many could be seen picking through the burnt out debris trying to salvage whatever little they could. Others hugged each other for comfort, clearly shocked by the extent of the damage.
'We’re going to rebuild,' Lucille Dwyer, 64, who had lived in her house for 23 years with her husband and son, told the Post. 'You can’t replace everything — all the sentimental things.

'I had photos of my son when he was a baby. I had my mother’s dining-room set that was 70 years old.'
The massive blaze was sparked by a downed power line and was not brought under control until daybreak on Tuesday.

Shellshocked: A boy walks among the wreckage of burnt out homes in Breezy Point

A girl covers her face and cries as she looks over the rows of burnt out houses in Breezy Point

A woman wearing a Breezy Point jersey collects any salvageable items from the wreckage of her home in a plastic bucket

Harrowing: Kristen Lang, and her mother, Pat Lang,can barely control their emotions as they stand in what was once their home in Breezy Point

Slim pickings: A Breezy Point resident salvages golf balls from the wreckage of his home

A father and son carry away items form the wreckage of their home in black garbage bags

Pleas: Residents of 114th Street and Rockaway Beach Blvd. sit in front of their home asking passers by if they can get help from FEMA or the Red Cross

In demand: An insurance appraiser speaks with a woman who lost her home in Breezy Point

Devastation: The Breezy Point neighborhood, in New York, where more than 50 homes were burned to the ground

Gutted: More than 50 homes were burned to the ground at Breezy Point on Monday night as a result of Sandy

Destruction: 111 homes in Breezy Point, Queens, were reduced to ash after an uncontrollable blaze spread across the neighbourhood

A Virgin Mary is all that remains from a home which was destroyed during Hurricane Sandy

Many of the residents refused to participate in the mandatory evacuation that Mayor Bloomberg ordered before the storm hit, claiming that they could handle whatever Hurricane Sandy had for them.
Their thinking was based on experience: the hype before Hurricane Irene caused only some flood damage, and when the area was hit with a freak tornado just months ago, it came out remarkably unscathed.
That wasn’t the case this time, however, as the area now looks like a deserted warzone.
Firefighters waded into rushing floodwaters and scaled walls to perform dramatic rescues of dozens of trapped residents of the neighborhood at the tip of the Rockaway peninsula.

A man, who asked not to be identified, embraces his neighbor Linda Strong as Lucille Dwyer (right) looks on among the wreckage of their homes

Vihaan Gadodia, two, is handed from a National Guard truck after he and his family left a flooded building in Hoboken, New Jersey

Breezy Point looked like a war zone this morning after the fire ripped through people's homes and businesses

Crippled: The wreckage of more homes devastated by fire and the effects of Hurricane Sandy

A woman views still smoldering damage in a neighborhood in the Breezy Point area of Queens in New York

Little was left in the wake of the fire that destroyed up to 100 homes on Monday night

Hundreds of people have been left with nothing after the blaze ripped through their homes uncontrollably

The blaze claimed the home of Rep Bob Turner, a Republican who won the seat of disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner last year. 
Conservative Party chairman Michael Long also lost his house.
But for many of the 190 firefighters who heroically waged combat against the fire and the bluster of Superstorm Sandy, the battle was personal.
The tight-knit Irish Catholic community of 5,000 is home to hundreds of firefighters.

A vehicle is seen in floodwaters the morning after hybrid storm Sandy rolled through in Brick, New Jersey

A fire department spokesman says more than 190 firefighters were at the blaze in the Breezy Point section

Vehicles left on a street of Long Beach Island, New Jersey, before Hurricane Sandy blew through the area are now buried in sand

A man carries his wife through the floodwaters in Hoboken, New Jersey. The U.S. Northeast began crawling back to normal on Wednesday after monster storm Sandy

Boats jumbled together at a marina in Brant Beach, on Long Beach Island on the New Jersey shore

In one account of a rescue 25 people were trapped between chest deep floodwaters and flames threatening from the roof

It is unknown how many people have been made homeless as a result of the fires but it is expected to be in the hundreds

Another fire continues to burn next to a house that appears to have been spared from total destruction

Flattened: More than 100 homes were destroyed after fires ripped through around Breezy Point

Grief: Most were helpless to do more than watch as their homes, cars and possessions were burned to ashes

Gone: A man looks through the debris of his destroyed home, still smouldering after the massive fire

Consolation: Families and friends embrace as they look over the remnants of their homes

Lucky escape: Burned-out cars and crumbling walls in the Queens community, where dozens were stuck during the storm

Lives upturned: Firefighters had to use boats or wade through chest-deep water to save families from their homes

Gutted: Firefighters battled to extinguish the flames after downed power lines sent rows of houses up in smoke

What's left? Firefighters pick through the rubble after Superstorm Sandy triggered the terrifying inferno

Appalled: Dazed Rockaway locals milled around looking for reminders of their houses after the storm passed over

Fire and water: People were forced to flee their homes in the seaside community after flood waters reached levels of five feet

Evacuated: A crushed beach house in the Bell Harbor community after Sandy hit the Rockaway Peninsular in Queens

Heroes of the crisis: In one building, 25 people were stuck until brave rescue teams saved their lives

Test of humanity: While some have acted nobly, others have taken advantage of the chaos by looting, with three men were arrested in an alleged burglary on a Radio Shack in the Rockaways

During the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 70 current or former residents of the neighborhood were killed.

Dozens of them were Fire Department of New York rescuers, who were rushing into the World Trade Center moments after it was struck.
A memorial to the dead sits on the beach of the bedroom community.
The storm battered the little peninsula of Rockaway that juts between the Atlantic Ocean and Jamaica Bay.
The entire area, which has 130,000 residents, was in the city’s mandatory evacuation zone, but hundreds decided to stay and weather the storm. 

Black day: Kerry Rudolph and a family friend survey the surrounding destruction outside her home of five years in Breezy Point

Horrified: Two men look at damage in Breezy Point as the storm's death toll rises to 50

Worst fears realised: Three New York City Fire Department firefighters look around the neighborhood, where 100s decided to weather the storm in defiance of the evacuation order

Personal struggle: The tight-knit Irish Catholic community of 5,000 is home to hundreds of firefighters and 70 former residents were killed in the 9/11 attacks

Ruined: The cost of the damage could be life-changing for families and businesses in the community

In pieces: Battered houses in the Queens area after the dramatic flooding and wild inferno

Sorrow: Mayor Michael Bloomberg, pictured in Breezy Point, said the blaze 'looked like a forest fire out in the Midwest'

Floodwaters made the community inaccessible for fire crews for many hours.

Firefighters said 25 people were stuck in one burning building and had to be rescued by boat because the water was chest deep.

Firefighter Michael Parrella told the New York Times that the area was ‘probably the most flooded part of the city.’
Tropical storm-force winds whipped the small blaze into a frenzy, and it engulfed house after house. Initial reports late on Monday said 25 homes were on fire. Then the toll rose to 50. Then 80.
The final estimate is 111 houses leveled, most of them reduced to smoldering ash.

Hard hit: The Rockaway peninsula is a narrow strip of land that juts between the Atlantic Ocean and Jamaica Bay. The entire area, which has 130,000 residents, was in the city's mandatory evacuation zone, but dozens decided to stay and weather the storm

A group of people wander through homes devastated by the fire, overcome by the smoke

Burnt possessions belonging to people who have lost everything lay strewn across the area where the fires struck

‘It looked like a forest fire out in the Midwest,’ Mayor Bloomberg told the New York Daily News. ‘The winds were just devastating blowing from one building to the next one. We are hoping and praying that there was no loss of life in those fires.’
One firefighter was injured and two residents were hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported.
Some took advantage of the chaos, with men arrested on burglary charges after they struck a Radio Shack in Rockaway Beach yesterday.

The six-alarm fire - a rating system indicating it is dangerously serious - was whipped into a frenzy by wild winds. 
‘The Rockaways are devastated,' wrote Twitter user @KevinNeafsey. 'I can't believe the place that I grew up in looks like this after today, it's so incredibly sad.'
Tracie Strahan tweeted: 'We're on a submerged, powerless street in the Rockaways. I can't imagine how hard it is for @FDNY New York Fire Department to get to fires in the area this AM.'
NYC Arecs (Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Service) said that police in the 100th Precinct station house in the area were trapped on the building’s second floor.
‘What we have seen here is absolutely devastating,’ said ABC News producer Jim DeBreuil.
At Rockaway Park, a crew of Fire Department of New York special operations firefighters found themselves stranded on the last dry ground in the neighborhood.
They took a small boat into the heart of the fire and carried 30 people to safety.