a place for "Surfing" and to "scuba dive for sunken ships". Out-of-towners start to call the beach "Williamsburg on the Rockaways" because some surfers from the Brooklyn neighborhood spend whole summers out in the Rockaways. The community was devastated by Hurricane Sandy in late 2012. Rockaway Beach reconstruction began with Phase One, a $10 million contract provided by the Army Corps of Engineers to restore of sand along Rockaway Beach in August 2013. The second phase put nearly of sand in 2014 at a cost of about $37 million. Phase Two was paid by the federal government through the Hurricane Sandy relief bill. Demographics Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of the combined area of Breezy Point/Belle Harbor/Rockaway Park/Broad Channel was 28,018, an increase of 1,307 (4.9%) from the 26,711 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the four neighborhoods had a population density of . The racial makeup of the neighborhoods was 78.3% (21,946) White, 7.5% (2,095) African American, 0.1% (29) Native American, 2.1% (595) Asian, 0.0% (8) Pacific Islander, 0.2% (66) from other races, and 0.9% (259) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 10.8% (3,020) of the population. Rockaway Beach is known as the "Irish Riviera" because of the large Irish American population in the area. The community itself has a total population of more than 13,000 people, making it the third most populated neighborhood on the peninsula. As of the 2000 United States Census, 25.4% of residents in ZIP code 11693 identified themselves as having Irish ancestry, making the Rockaway Beach area the 2nd most Irish region in the whole country—right after Boston, Massachusetts's South Shore, which has roughly 38–40% of its citizens claiming Irish, or mostly Irish, ancestry. Education The neighborhood, like all of New York City, is served by the New York City Department of Education. Rockaway Beach residents are zoned to either P.S. 183, an elementary school, or P.S. 225, a middle school. Additionally, the community contains two private Catholic elementary schools: St. Camillus and St. Rose of Lima. There is no high school zoning, as all New York City residents who wish to attend a public high school must apply to high schools. Although there is no high school within the community's boundaries, nearby high schools include Beach Channel High School. Transportation The and local bus, and the serves the Rockaway