New Documentary Focuses On Ignored Warning Of Sandy In The Rockaways

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A warning ignored is the subject of a new documentary about the Rockaways.

With the Rockaways in ruins, scrawled on the wall of a handball court by the beach were the words: "John Cori Warned You."

"The storm was coming. Everybody knew it was coming, but the beaches were severely eroded," Cori told WCBS 880 reporter Alex Silverman.

"People having fun and games, you know riding waves and nobody's are looking under the boardwalk. Me and John are under the boardwalk, we seen all the steel rotted away and he's bringing pictures to the community board and their not doing anything," said Eddy Pastore. "Nobody was paying any attention to it, not the city, not the state, not even out own community board."

"We lost every bit of Sand we after Irene," Cori said.

"The frustration level was just mounting and mounting and mounting," Pastore said. "I said to John at time, I said, 'What is it going to take? Is it going to take water to run down the street?' and he said 'Probably.'"

It wasn't until after the worst came true that local filmmaker Dan Brown, who lost his job just weeks after the storm, heard about their work.

"All I wanted to do is make a five minute video on what John and Eddie were doing," he said.

It turned into a full-length documentary on the movement to save the Rockaways' beaches.

"No beach, no protection, no rockaways," Cori said.

It's called "John Cori Warned You" and it's due out in March.

"I don't want any money to do this and I'm not going to charge any money to see it," Brown said.

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