By Miranda Leitsinger on U.S. News

  • Boy Scouts vote to lift ban on gay youth

    Michael Prengler / Reuters

    Pascal Tessier, 16, from Kensington, Md., an openly gay scout who was facing expulsion from the Boy Scouts, answers questions from the media while his mother, Tracie Felker, looks on.

    By Miranda Leitsinger and Jason White, NBC News, Staff Writer, NBC News

    GRAPEVINE, Texas -- The Boy Scouts of America voted Thursday to end its controversial policy banning gay kids and teens from joining one of the nation's most popular youth organizations, ditching membership guidelines that had roiled the group in recent years.

    Over 61 percent of Scouting's National Council of 1,232 delegates from across the country voted to lift the ban, BSA officials said. The final tally was 757 yes votes, to 475 no (another 168 delegates did not cast a ballot since they were not present at the meeting). The ban on gay leaders was not voted on and will remain in place. 

    "This resolution today dealt with youth. We have not changed our adult membership standards. They have served us well for the last 100 years. Those were not on the table," said Tico Perez, BSA national commissioner.

    The policy change will go into effect Jan. 1, 2014, "allowing the Boy Scouts of America the transition time needed to communicate and implement this policy to its approximately 116,000 Scouting units," the BSA said in a statement.

    But the outcome of the historic ballot is not going to end the debate: Some opponents on the right said they would pull their sponsorships of packs and troops, and parents threatened to take their boys out of Scouting; LGBT activists said the policy change doesn't go far enough because gay adults still wouldn't be allowed to participate.

    Ohio mom Jennifer Tyrrell, who was ousted in April 2012 as den leader of her son's Tiger Cub pack because she is a lesbian, said it was a step forward even though she wouldn't benefit from the change.

    "I am so excited because even though it doesn't affect me, it is what we've been working for," she said. "And I think it's an indication of what's to come."

    Tyrrell, who reignited the conversation about discrimination in the Boy Scouts after her ouster, said her son Cruz wouldn't return to the Boy Scouts until all families were included.

    "One day, we'll be back, and I'm not going to stop until we're there," she said, becoming teary-eyed as she spoke about not being able to participate. "Tomorrow, we're going to start the next phase, and I'm ready."

    Pascal Tessier, a gay 16-year-old from Kensington, Md., felt hopeful after the vote. He believes he can get his Eagle rank — the Scouts' highest honor — in the fall.

    Ending a process that started four months ago, Boy Scout leaders have voted to allow gay scouts but the ban on gay adult leaders remains in place. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

    "There are a lot of things going through my head," he said. "The initial reaction is ecstatic because I can go home and tell everyone that I'm still a Boy Scout."

    But he said he also felt bad for gay leaders.

    "They don't get to feel the same thing," he said. "I feel guilty ... I've promised myself I'm going to return the favor to them. Helping do whatever I have to do to get full inclusion of both youth and adults." 

    Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout son of lesbian moms and founder of Scouts for Equality, said it was “hard to overstate” how important it was for the Boy Scouts to even consider weakening the policy.

    “Even though I think that there will probably still be a few folks who choose to walk away … I think this is the beginning of the rebound of Scouting in America,” he said.

    Boy Scouts leader on the passing of a resolution to lift the ban on gay youth.

    The ban on gay Scouts has been the subject of much soul-searching in the century-old organization – from local troops and councils to national board meetings. The dispute was even heard by the Supreme Court, which said 13 years ago that as a private membership organization, the BSA was free to decide who it would admit.

    Last summer, the Boy Scouts reaffirmed their anti-gay policy after a two-year examination by a committee. Since then, some local chapters had been pushing for a reconsideration.

    More than 70 percent of Boy Scout units are sponsored by religious groups, and this compromise proposal has split them. One of the Southern Baptist Church leaders, Dr. Frank Page, last week implored the Boy Scouts not to change the policy. But The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints – the BSA's biggest charter partner – had given tacit endorsement to the plan.

    BSA President Wayne Perry said the vote came after an "extensive," "exhaustive," and "respectful" dialogue among the members of the organization.

    "It's a very difficult decision for a lot of people, but we are moving forward together," he said. "Our vision is to serve every kid."

    The stakes are huge for the BSA, which boasts nearly 3 million youth participants.

    "This has been a challenging chapter in our history," said Wayne Brock, the BSA's chief Scout executive. "Our goal through all of this was to put the kids first."

    Lm Otero / AP

    Terri Hall, left, of San Antonio, Texas, stands with her son Nathaniel Hall, 8, as they rally near where the Boy Scouts of America are holding their annual meeting.

    Rusty Tisdale, assistant Scoutmaster for a troop in Ellisville, Miss., hopes there is a local option that would allow the decision on gay members to be made at the troop level. Otherwise, he will pull his kids.

    "I'm not happy as a parent," Tisdale emailed to NBC News. "The gay activist isn't happy and will not be until homosexuals can be leaders, etc. So there will be more pressure, and more fighting, And more acquiescence. No thanks."

    "There are other activities for my kids to do," he added. "There are other organizations that I can support with my time and money."

    The decision didn't come easily, according to Perez, the BSA national commissioner. 

    "There were divisions about how to serve kids," he said. "If we have disagreement, if we have discomfort, we are going to talk through it. America needs Scouting."

    He added, "Our singular focus moving forward is serving more kids in Scouting, and we believe this resolution is going to do that."

    Tony Gutierrez / AP

    John Stemberger, an Eagle Scout and Florida-based attorney, speaks out Thursday in Grapevine, Texas, during a news conference against the Boy Scouts of American decision allowing openly gay scouts to participate in Scouting.

    John Stemberger, from Orlando, Fla., has two sons in the Boy Scouts. He started a group opposing the change called "On My Honor." After the decision was announced, he said he and his sons — who have yet to reach Eagle Scout — were leaving the Boy Scouts.

    "Sex and politics just have no place in the Boy Scouts of America," Stemberger said in Grapevine. "The entire process was disappointing." 

    David Metcalf, 55, and his son Sean Metcalf, a 13-year-old Star Scout with Troop 226, from nearby McKinney, Texas, came to Grapevine to hear the results of the vote. The troop is chartered by Peach, a Christian homeschool organization.

    "We're very disappointed," David said. "I will compare it to a funeral."

    Sean, wearing his Boy Scouts uniform, said he didn't know if he could remain a Scout.

    "I hope I can continue," he said. "It depends if my parents feel safe to let me stay."

    If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on how your troop, pack or council is handling the change in the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com. We may use some comments for a follow-up story, so please specify if your remarks can be used and provide your name, hometown, age, Boy Scout affiliation and a phone number.

    NBC News' Elizabeth Chuck contributed to this report.

     

    Related:

  • 'Big step' or 'tragedy'? Web reacts to Scouts lifting ban on gays 
  • Boy Scouts vote on gays: What's at stake
  • Scouts propose allowing gay scouts, but banning leaders
  • Mormon church OK with ending Scouts' ban on gay youth

    • This story was originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 6:43 PM EDT

  • Amid the rubble, laughter and tears for one family devastated by tornado

    Kael Alford for NBC News

    From left to right: Amber Bowie, 37, Johnny Knight, 66, Rebecca Garland 63, Janis Knight, 62, Jana Portell, 32, Todd Portell, 31, Chase Shelton, 15, and Dan Garland, 65, pose for a portrait around the underground storm shelter that saved their lives during the tornado that struck Moore, Okla., on May 20. The storm destroyed their 3000-square-foot home.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — A little treasure in the debris of a home that once welcomed Rebecca Garland's four grandchildren gave her such a delight as her friends and family scoured the mountain of rubble for any mementos left behind by Monday's powerful tornado.

    “This is where we measured the kids' height!” she exclaimed as her son Lee held up a piece of a wall showing the rising tick-marks as his three boys and little girl grew taller and taller — her "sugars," she calls them. “Oh! Oh! ... That's priceless.”

    “Little stuff like this,” said Lee, 41. “It can go in the new house.”

    Such was the talk among the Garlands, their two adult children, and the many friends who stopped by on Wednesday — with brownies and cupcakes, plastic boxes and a couple of hugs and laughs — as the couple contemplated the road ahead after Monday's tornado tore apart their house, which was built by Rebecca's husband, Dan.

    The pair, who have owned a construction business for more than 30 years, also built the homes next door for Dan's 91-year-old mother, Bobbie, and his neighbor, Ron Bowie.

    Those houses were destroyed, too, as the tornado tore a devastating swath through their scenic neighborhood of rolling green hills, century-old trees and farm animals.

    Kael Alford for NBC News

    Lee Garland found a piece of sheet rock marked with the heights of his children from his parents' home May 22 in Moore, Okla. He cut the piece out of the wall when going through the rubble to save and install when his parents rebuild.

    Bobbie won't rebuild, but Bowie said if he does, he'll enlist his neighbors again.

    “It's kind of an emotional thing,” said the Garlands' other son, Max, 36, as he stood next to the many jagged and splintered pieces of wood that once made up his parents' one-story home. “We framed and built these houses.... Part of your life is destroyed in a way.”

    The Garlands plan to rebuild, which could take up to nine months — depending on when they get started. For now they are bunking with Max, and they'll soon head to the house of family friends — the Portells — who hunkered down with them during the tornado in their storm shelter.

    “What's good about this group is you can always find a blessing in disguise,” said Todd Portell, 32, who works in sales and whose wife, Jana, has known the Garlands since she was a child. “Through the rubble we've always found something to laugh about, something that's good.”

    There were many laughs and giggles among the group of friends and family, especially from Rebecca, 63. As a wind picked up two cardboard boxes, swirling them through the air, she cracked: “Oh, look at a wind tornado! How dare you!”


    “Hey you little pipsqueak, we're not scared of you!” Dan, 65, chimed in.

    “We've laughed a lot,” his wife noted. “We've cried, too, but we've laughed.”

    As they scrolled through items like their wedding album and a scrapbook (“Here we are when we were king and queen. And here we are as Sonny and Cher,” Rebecca mused of the photos), Dan had a difficult moment.

    “There's sentimental value, and that makes it a little more touching and a little more emotional. (Other stuff) is just scrap and junk that you can replace. Memories ... (it's) hard to replace those things,” he said as he choked up.

    “At least they're in the heart,” Rebecca said.

    “Yeah but, I mean, it's the end of things,” Dan said.

    That ending began Monday, when the Garlands, Bobbie, seven friends and two dogs sought safety in the storm shelter at the foot of their house.

    With the more than 200 mph whipping winds, Dan struggled to hold the door shut, and Portell and another friend jumped up to help him. That door, dated in pen "05/1/01" for when the shelter was put in, is now bent, revealing the precariousness of their safety.

    Kael Alford for NBC News

    Rebecca Garland is comforted by a friend outside their house on 149th Street that was destroyed in the tornado that struck Moore, Okla., on May 20. The family hid in their storm shelter with neighbors.

    “The whole storm shelter was vibrating. We thought it was going to suck us out of the ground, the whole thing. It was the most frightening thing I've ever experienced in my life,” Rebecca said. “The sound was 1,000 times at least louder than airplane jets. Your ears were popping, just, pop, pop, pop.”

    That the storm shelter barely held has Rebecca making the case for a storm cellar built into the basement of their new house, although they don't know yet what the rest of their new home will look like. Dan had always resisted going in the detached storm shelter during tornadoes, but he is now angling for a safe room.

    “I prefer the safe room on top of the ground if I can convince her that that would be safe,” Dan said.

    “I was underground, and I didn't feel safe, so I'm not sure,” Rebecca said.

    But first, they'll have to finish scouring the debris for mementos, bulldoze everything to the street, take out the footing, foundation — everything — from the house, Dan said.

    “We're starting from scratch,” Rebecca noted.

    Insurance should cover the cost, they hope.

    “If I think about this ... the work and the time spent, it's emotional ... just emotional,” Dan said. “I'm not as young as I used to be. I'll do it over again, that's it.”

    Related stories:

  • Injured marathon bombing survivors' graduation walk a 'milestone' in recovery

    Daniel Holmes for NBC News

    Brittany Loring, right, and Liza Cherney, both of whom were seriously injured in the Boston Marathon bombings, lead the procession Monday at the Carroll School of Management commencement ceremony at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Before she was seriously wounded in the Boston Marathon bombings, Brittany Loring didn’t have to give much thought to her graduation walk.

    But on Monday, after ditching the single crutch she had been using during her recovery, she walked with a stiff limp to collect her diploma from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management -- passing a “milestone,” she said, as she recovers from the horrible events of April 15. She was joined by a close friend, Liza Cherney, who was also hurt and was graduating from the program.

    “This is the first step to overcoming it," Loring told NBC News before the ceremony. "It’s definitely showing that the individuals that committed this crime are not holding me back. At least in terms of the goals that I had prior to the event and post event, they haven’t changed.” 

    Loring, who earned an MBA degree on Monday, was cheering on friends in the city’s iconic road race as part of her 29th birthday celebration when the bombs exploded. She suffered a skull fracture and concussion, was struck by BB pellets -- including one in the neck and two in the head, and had wounds on both of her upper thighs, likely from shrapnel.

    After three surgeries to clean and close the wounds, and weeks of occupational and physical therapy, Loring managed to walk for the first time without crutches last week, lasting as long as 15 minutes. She also has begun to venture into crowds again, a daunting prospect for some of the injured, and resumed some of her routines, such as visiting a local café. 

    “I feel better every day," she said, noting she can now bend her knee to 90 degrees. "I seem to be moving pretty quickly in comparison to where I started.”

    Loring’s classmates at Boston College, where she will also receive her law degree on Friday, sprung to action in the aftermath, making sure she wasn’t alone and was getting the care she needed. Cards, meals and flowers also streamed in.

    “I knew that I had a tight group of friends … but I mean there is nothing like an event like this to really give people the opportunity to show how much they care,” she said. “After this event I just, I feel a lot closer to them … and I can see how much they respect and care for each other and for me.” 

    Boston College said it waived Loring’s final exams and last assignments so she could graduate with her class.

    On Monday, Loring walked alongside Cherney, who said she was struck by a lot of shrapnel in one leg. The friends bore big smiles under sunny Boston skies. 

    Daniel Holmes for NBC News

    Brittany Loring receives her diploma Monday.

    “I expect that we will be friends forever," Loring said. "We’re really close and I’m so happy that she’s doing as well as she is and that we will be able to move forward and carry on.” The shared walk in the ceremony “definitely has a lot of meaning for me,” she added.

    Though it was such an accomplishment to achieve the MBA, Cherney said the day took on greater significance after the attacks.

    "It is more special because I feel very close to so many people who are graduating with us today, even closer than before,” she told reporters after the ceremony.

    The pair was among 275 injured in the attacks. Loring will join some of the injured at a local rehabilitation hospital later this week, where she will do outpatient therapy. Eighteen people remain hospitalized after the bombings as of Friday.

    "I’ve been trying to get things back to normal and that’s not always easy," Cherney said. "Just seeing that you can’t do things that you used to be able to do as easily has been a struggle. And also, I mean, from an emotional standpoint every once in a while it’s tough, but I think that ... you’ve got to push through.”

    Doctors haven’t given Loring a time frame for a full recovery, but she plans to walk in her wedding in September and to start her job in international tax in October.

    Reflecting on the attacks, she said she has had her ups and downs emotionally.

    "It is life changing in some ways," she said. " ... but I hope that it will only be in a positive way, and that it will just make me a better person for it.  ... I hope that I will be able to do good in my life because of this understanding.”

    To donate to Brittany Loring, her family has set up this fund. And for Liza Cherney, this fund.

    NBC freelance photographer Daniel Holmes contributed to this report.

    Related:

    Marathon bombing victims adjust to a 'different normal'

    Full coverage of the Boston Marathon tragedy on NBCNews.com

  • Marathon bomb victims adjust to a 'different normal'

    Daniel Holmes for NBC News

    Roseann Sdoia, who had her right leg amputated after the marathon bombing, uses a hand-cycle outside Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown, Mass.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    BOSTON – They've been taking their first steps, pushing through tough rehabilitation workouts and venturing into crowds again.

    One month after blasts at the Boston Marathon killed three and injured 265, victims of the attack are trying to adjust to a "different normal" -- as one of them put it.

    For many, that includes recovering from multiple wounds, such as severe burns, hearing loss, brain injuries and nerve and vascular damage. At least 15 have undergone amputations.

    "The majority are not isolated to just having amputation but more of a complex poly-trauma," said Dr. David Crandell of Boston's Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, which has been treating some 30 of the wounded who require ongoing in-patient care, including most of the amputees. 

    Some have undergone multiple surgeries, such as brothers Paul and J.P. Norden. Others are waiting for serious injuries to heal, like Pete DiMartino, who lost 90 percent of his right Achilles' tendon and suffered multiple broken bones in his ankles. Yet others, such as Roseann Sdoia, who had an above-knee amputation on her right leg, are embarking on the next phase of their recovery by going home. 

    Though the contours of recovery vary among those injured in the attack, for a number of them the journey remains without end and uncertain. Even among those who kept their limbs, nerve damage can add variability to the process.

    "Their ultimate outcome may not be determined for several months or even a year," said Crandell, medical director of the center's amputee program.

    On various floors of the hospital, the wounded undergo exams, physical and occupational rehabilitation, or attend group or individual mental health therapy sessions.

    Bartender itching to go home
    One of those recovering at Spaulding is DiMartino, who pushes himself to go further in each rehabilitation session so he can go home as soon as possible.

    Daniel Holmes for NBC News

    Pete DiMartino, of Rochester, N.Y., suffered serious leg injuries during the bomb attack on the Boston Marathon.

    The 28-year-old bartender from Rochester, N.Y., went to the marathon with friends and family to cheer on his mother, who was competing in the city's iconic road race. His left shoe was blown off in the blast.

    In addition to the Achilles and ankle injuries, DiMartino suffered second-degree burns on his left leg and back, and had shrapnel buried in both legs. Doctors took muscle from his forearm to replace the skin, soft tissue and muscle he lost around his right ankle.

    "The injuries he's had will probably affect the way his leg works for the rest of his life," said his doctor at Spaulding, Dr. Jeffrey Schneider, medical director of burn and trauma rehabilitation. "What he has been through is tremendous."

    DiMartino arrived at Spaulding on May 2. Though he can't put weight on his right foot, he took his first steps on the left one on Friday, getting up on crutches to take an exhausting 90-second walk. He followed up on Monday by walking for two minutes, and then a third time he made it for five minutes. 

    "Seeing those small victories just makes me feel so much better about everything," DiMartino, whose girlfriend and older sister were also wounded, said from his hospital bed. 

    "It's challenging to say the least, but exhilarating at the same time," he said. "I'm advancing and I'm getting up and I'm doing these things to make my stay here shorter. … A step at a time."

    On his right calf, DiMartino has a triangular-shaped contraption -- an external fixator -- with metal pins drilled into bone to stabilize the area and keep his ankle from moving. He hopes to head home -- where his sister is recovering -- in two weeks, but Schneider said the timeframe is not clear. His girlfriend is one of six people still being treated in other Boston hospitals, and the two video chat daily.

    "I would really love to run the marathon next year," he said. "Every day that I'm down in the gym working out, I push myself a little bit harder than they tell me to. They tell me to do one more, I do two or three more. I know it's not a lot, but I'm just always pushing myself a little bit harder just so that I can get out of the wheelchair faster, I can get off the crutches faster ... and then I can start training."

    Brothers united in recovery
    Paul Norden and his older brother, J.P., went to the marathon to cheer on friends running in the race, and each lost part of a leg in the blasts. 

    Elise Amendola / AP

    J.P. Norden, right, followed by his brother, Paul, both suffered limb-loss after the Boston Marathon bombing.

    Treated at different hospitals, the close-knit brothers struggled under the separation. They were reunited, staying under the same roof, last Friday, when J.P. joined Paul at Spaulding. They shared an embrace from their wheelchairs after talking to reporters.

    "It's the best thing ever, it's great," J.P., 33, said of being around Paul, 31.

    "It was just so tough," Paul said of the separation. "I see him every day of my life ... it's just amazing to be back to normal."

    But their joint stint at the rehab center will be short-lived. Paul, a union sheet metal worker who had his right leg amputated above the knee, will leave on Thursday to start the next phase of his recovery while J.P., an unemployed roofer who had his right leg amputated above the knee, will continue his work at Spaulding. 

    "We're competitive, so it stinks to see him leave," J.P. quipped, with Paul adding: "I'll visit him every day."

    The brothers' doctor, Dr. Ross Zafonte, said Paul, who had been in a coma for the first five days after the attacks, was at a point where he could be a little more independent and go through outpatient training.

    "His brother is not yet quite at that stage of the game," he added, "... and is undergoing a little bit more of the healing process. ... but he will get there."

    Though the brothers said they'd had some bad days after the attacks, they both expressed optimism about what is to come. The pair will recuperate at their mother's home in Wakefield.

    "I'm ready to move on. I feel great. It's just a different normal," Paul said. "It's exciting to know I'm going home real soon."

    "It sounds weird but it's probably changed me for the better a little bit," J.P. said. "It made me realize how great people are. … so I'm happy, overall. I really am."

    Old routines renewed
    Outside of Spaulding on Monday, Roseann Sdoia took off on a bike that she powered with her arms. Her last in-patient day at Spaulding was Tuesday, and her occupational therapist, Samantha Geary, wanted to give her a fun rehabilitation send-off.

    Daniel Holmes / for NBC News

    "I have so much appreciation and gratitude for everything that everybody's done," said Roseann Sdoia, who has gone to her Boston home to continue her recovery.

    The pair had already visited Sdoia's second-floor apartment in Boston's North End to test out how she will fare on one leg. And they tried out the cobblestone streets of her neighborhood with Sdoia navigating on crutches. She met a neighbor, who offered to pay for a grocery delivery service, and another greeted her with kisses. 

    Sdoia, who runs the residential portfolio for a development firm, has had similarly warm embraces from her friends and family, who have joined her at physical and occupational therapy, and kept a steady presence in her room to cheer her spirits.

    "I have so much appreciation and gratitude for everything that everybody's done between donations and just time that ... friends have spent with me, endless hours just being here to make sure I'm not alone going through this," she said, breaking down in tears. 

    Sdoia admits she has had some rough days since the attacks and is not sure what to expect when she leaves the safety net of the rehabilitation center. But she figures more emotions will emerge when she departs. 

    "I honestly don't really know what happened to me. I mean, I know I was in a bombing, I know I lost part of my leg. I know that, but I guess I really won't know exactly what happened again until I go home, and I'm back in daily life, and dealing with getting around on the crutches and traversing ... things that aren't handicap accessible," she said. "It's going to be a challenge and I think at that point it will hit me."

    She has re-started familiar routines, like watching the 10 p.m. news and tuning into the radio in the morning. Sdoia hopes she will get a prosthetic in a few weeks, which she said would be "liberating."

    "So the crutches are temporary," she said, "and, in my head, so is my disability, is how I look at it."

    How to help:
    For a general fund to help victims, the One Fund, created by Boston's mayor and the governor of Massachusetts, is accepting donations.

    To donate to individuals featured in this story, here are funds they have set up:
    Pete DiMartino
    Roseann Sdoia
    Norden brothers

    Slideshow: Boston bombings

    Heightened security, empty streets, and memorials mark the the days after the Boston Marathon bombings.

    Launch slideshow

    Related:

    Full coverage of the Boston Marathon tragedy on NBCNews.com

  • Six months after Sandy: 'Home sweet home' for some, others still adrift

    John Makely / NBC News

    Six months after Superstorm Sandy slammed into the Jersey Shore, a heavily damaged home in Mantoloking sits untouched.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    BREEZY POINT, N.Y. -- The construction noises are almost constant at daytime in this coastal enclave six months after Hurricane Sandy, but for many residents whose homes were badly damaged, recovery is moving at a slow pace – or not at all.

    Many of those displaced by the so-called superstorm say they are stuck in limbo, trying to raise money to pay for repairs or replace their homes while coming to grips with new, federal flood-zone maps that many fear will make it too costly for them to return.

    “We're no better off than we were six months ago," said Kieran Burke, a fire marshal who lost his home to a massive fire that erupted at the height of the storm. " ... I'd like to have an idea when I can tell my wife our children can go home.”

    Burke’s dilemma is not unique to hard-hit Breezy Point, where more than 75 percent of the homes were either consumed by fire or suffered flood damage.

    Some 39,000 people in New Jersey remain displaced by the storm, Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday. The number of New Yorkers still out of their homes is unclear, though federal officials said 350 households in the affected region are still getting money for hotel or motel stays.

    “We’ve just got the tip of the iceberg in terms of the amount of work that needs to be done,” said Michael Byrne, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's senior official in New York state for the Sandy response and recovery.

    Though people now have some resources to rebuild, he said, they “still have some tough questions to answer ... especially people that are in high-risk areas: 'How do I rebuild?' or 'Do I leave, do I seek a buyout?’ So, there’s still a lot of tough issues to be worked out.” 

    While some neighbors are almost ready to move back home, others are still unsure how much of their property can be rebuilt following the storm.

    Sandy blasted ashore on Oct. 29 near Brigantine, N.J., leaving more than at least 147 people dead in its wake in the Caribbean and the U.S., according to the National Hurricane Center. Nearly 74,000 homes and apartments in New York and New Jersey, where it made landfall on Oct. 29, sustained damage, according to FEMA.

    Some 450 homes in New York were destroyed by the storm, while approximately 46,000 in New Jersey were destroyed or sustained major damage, according to FEMA.

    FEMA has given more than $1.3 billion to more than 180,000 Sandy victims in Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. The National Flood Insurance Program has paid more than $7.1 billion in claims.

                                         View an interactive panorama: Sandy-battered town, then and now

    Some survivors whose homes sustained minor damage quickly returned home, as did some others who were able to shelter in place while they repaired and rebuilt.

    But in devastated communities like the Irish-American enclave of Breezy Point, many residents had to wait for the gas, power and water to be restored and insurance funds to come through -- if they did -- while still paying mortgages plus rent.

    “Some families and some lives have come back together quickly and well and some people are up and running,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last week. “Some people are still very much in the midst of the recovery. You still have people in hotel rooms. You still have people doubled up. You still have people fighting with insurance companies, and for them it’s been terrible and horrendous.”

    That seems a fitting description of Karly and Anthony Carrozza's situation in their neighborhood in Brick Township, N.J., which is dotted with “for sale” signs. Reconstruction work immediately ground to a halt in January, when FEMA released initial drafts of its new flood maps, which placed the community into the highest risk zone, they said.

    John Makely / NBC News

    Karly Carrozza and her husband, Anthony, can't start the rebuilding in Brick Township, N.J., until FEMA's flood zone map -- and the guidelines that come with it -- are finalized.

    If the maps are finalized as drawn, residents’ homes would have to be raised 11 feet and placed on pilings. Some state residents who don’t meet the requirements could face flood insurance premiums of up to $31,000 a year, according to Gov. Christie.

    “The cost to put this on pilings would not be worth the value of the house. It wouldn't make any sense,” Anthony Carrozza, 34, an equities trader, said this month of their small home on a lagoon.

    But the couple would have to pay off their $300,000 mortgage if they wanted to demolish the house and start anew.

    “We're all kind of in the same boat in a sense that until they have the final maps come out we can't make any decisions,” Karly Carrozza, 36, an account executive, said.

    She has joined a group of New Jersey citizens facing the same difficult choices -- called Stop FEMA Now -- to advocate for changes to the flood maps. They also have recently ventured to New York City to band forces with homeowners there.

    She feels if they don't act, their coastal community will never be the same.

    In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a bill has been reintroduced in New York that would provide legal protection for architects who volunteer their services during disasters. New York Assemblyman Steve Englebright, the bill's sponsor hopes it will be voted on by June. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown speaks with Englebright and also Lance Brown of the American Institute of Architects about the proposal.

    “You could be in the middle class and enjoy a house on the water and I just feel like that's all going to change because a lot of the people around us who are going to walk away -- their homes are worth nothing,” she said. People who could afford to put the houses up to code "are going to come in and just scoop up the property," she added.

    In the meantime, the couple is staying nearby with Karly's parents to avoid paying rent in addition to their mortgage. Tarp and plastic cover part of the inside of their home, which took in a few feet of water.

    “There's people whose homes look much worse than ours, but it's almost like we're in no different of a predicament because our hands are tied,” Karly said. “We can't make any decisions, we can't move back. ...We're in no different a predicament today than we were the day after the storm.”

    Shifting sands have covered nearly all remnants of Kieran Burke’s bungalow in Breezy Point.

    The family home, which sat for decades on what were known as the “sand lanes” in this idyllic seaside community, burned to the ground with nearly 130 other residences in the fire – the largest in the city's modern history – that was triggered by the storm.

    The Army Corps of Engineers removed the charred remnants earlier this year, leaving just sand across a broad swath of an area known as The Wedge.

    John Makely / NBC News

    Kieran and Jennifer Burke, with 2-year-old Kieran Jr., visit the lot where their home stood before it burned to the ground the night that Hurricane Sandy hit.

    Located in one of the older parts of the private cooperative, Burke's home, like those of his neighbors, wasn't fronted on a city-mapped street. That means he will need approval from the NYC Board of Standards and Appeals on rebuilding plans.

    The agency has vowed to expedite the process, and the Breezy Point Cooperative is working with architects to design homes that will meet expected new city building requirements, as well as those from the flood maps – a preliminary version of which should be released in the coming weeks. So Burke is still waiting to break ground.

    “It’s devastating. It’s angering,” he said of the shifting planning landscape. “I’m paying a mortgage on an empty plot of land, we’re paying rent in a place that we're displaced in, that I have no conception of when I’m going to have the ability to move out of.”

    Burke, a New York City fire marshal, and his wife, Jennifer, both 40, have a two-year-old son, Kieran Junior, and they just welcomed another boy, Matthew, a little more than two weeks ago. They've been living in an office converted into an apartment in Yonkers, north of Manhattan and about an hour's drive from Breezy Point.

    “It doesn’t really seem to look any different than when I was here before, and I would have thought at least some of the other parts of it would have progressed a bit,” Jennifer Burke, a pharmaceutical research manager, said this month as she stood on the spot where her kitchen used to stand. “We’re just still waiting and still hoping. … The hardest part is just not knowing.”

    A few blocks away, in a corner of the community facing Jamaica Bay, the Fischers have moved back into their two-story home, even though it sits amid empty lots where neighbors once lived and is still being worked on.

    Christina and Barry Fischer, parents of five children, broke their lease early from a rental in northern Queens in late March because their FEMA rental aid ran out and they had expenses piling up (the FEMA money later came through).

    Some painting, tiling, sanding and cabinet work is among what remains to be done on the first floor, but now their children – ranging in age from 5 to 15 – can ride their bikes on Breezy Point’s quiet streets, go to church or the store by themselves, play on the beach and catch up with friends who have returned.

    When asked how it was to be home, one of the children, William, 10, exclaimed “Great!” as he snacked on Mallomars. “I can actually go outside.”

    Miranda Leitsinger / NBC News

    Georgia Fischer, 5, sifts sand with beach toys. She has Charcot Marie Tooth Disease, a common nerve disorder that can make it hard to walk, and apraxia, a speech disorder. Her parents had to re-arrange therapy and classes for her in the wake of the storm.

    Nonetheless, the road has been hard, with Christina Fischer, 35, taking leave from her job as an adjunct professor at St. John's University in Queens to focus on rebuilding, including battling with the insurance over money and fighting for months to get help from the city's “Rapid Repairs” program.

    That program, a first-ever federal-local initiative, offered to install free boilers, hot water heaters and do the necessary electrical work to restore power, but many who applied encountered long delays and sloppy workmanship when they did get service.

    The family also has two special needs children whose classes and therapy sessions had to be re-arranged in the aftermath as people were displaced and classrooms flooded.

    But the Fischers weren’t complaining in early April when a reporter met with them to take stock of how far they'd come. Tim, 7, pushed his bike through the sand, Georgia, 5, watched a movie on a computer tablet and the family dog, Scout, sat atop a pile of laundry as Barry Fischer, a 45-year-old electrician, tested out the new washer and dryer.

    “The three greatest words in the English language: home sweet home,” Barry said. “There ... is nothing better.”

    Related:

    Slideshow: Then and now in Breezy Point

    For subway station devastated by Sandy, road to recovery just beginning

    Six months after Sandy, Atlantic City is betting on a comeback

  • Mormon church OK with ending Boy Scouts' ban on gay youth

    Richard W. Rodriguez/AP file

    Boy Scouts hold signs at the "Save Our Scouts" prayer vigil and rally in front of the Boy Scouts of America' national headquarters in Irving, Texas, on Feb. 6, 2013.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has given tacit approval to the Boy Scouts’ proposal to allow gay youth to join, saying they “appreciate the positive things” included in the plan to end the organization's controversial ban on gay boys.

    The Boy Scouts of America last week proposed allowing gay youth – but not adults – to participate in the private youth organization. That came two months after they floated the idea of allowing gays and lesbians of all ages to join, a proposal that was denounced by the conservative religious groups that make up a bulk of Scouting.

    “We are grateful to BSA for their careful consideration of these issues. We appreciate the positive things contained in this current proposal that will help build and strengthen the moral character and leadership skills of youth as we work together in the future,” the LDS church said Thursday in a statement posted to their website.

    “The current BSA proposal constructively addresses a number of important issues that have been part of the ongoing dialogue, including consistent standards for all BSA partners, recognition that Scouting exists to serve and benefit youth rather than Scout leaders, a single standard of moral purity for youth in the program, and a renewed emphasis for Scouts to honor their duty to God."

    The Mormon church tops the list of membership enrollment numbers, with 431,000 youths participating in LDS-sponsored units as of Dec. 31, 2012. That was followed by the United Methodist Church at 364,000 and the Catholic Church at 274,000. More than 70 percent of Scouting units are chartered to faith-based groups.

    The Boy Scouts said Thursday in a statement that it was pleased the LDS church was “satisfied that the BSA has made a thoughtful, good-faith effort to address this issue.”

    “For nearly 100 years we have worked together with the mutual goal of building the moral character and leadership skills of youth. We believe kids are better off when they are in Scouting, and the program is successful because of its relationships with valued chartered organizations like the Church,” the statement said.

    The Boy Scouts’ policy has increasingly been a sore spot for the organization over the last year, following the dismissal of a den leader because she is a lesbian and the denial of the Eagle Scout rank to a California teen because he is gay.

    The BSA’s National Council will vote on changing the membership policy on May 23. Its biannual “The Voice of the Scout Survey,” conducted earlier this year, for the first time included questions on gay membership.

    Among the 280 administrative local councils, half recommended no change, 38 percent recommended a change and 14 percent took a neutral position, the Scouts said.

    "While perspectives and opinions vary significantly, parents, adults in the Scouting community and teens alike tend to agree that youth should not be denied the benefits of Scouting," the organization said last week in a statement.

    If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on how your troop, pack or council is handling the BSA's proposed change to the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com. We may use some comments for a follow-up story, so please specify if your remarks can be used and provide your name, hometown, age, Boy Scout affiliation and a phone number.

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