A couple dozen homeowners on Staten Island’s South Shore registered Tuesday to have their Sandy-damaged homes bought by New York state. They are the first of potentially hundreds of Sandy victims in both New York and New Jersey who may choose to sell their homes rather than repair them.

“It's sort of like a bittersweet thing,” said Joseph Tirone, the head of the Oakwood Beach Buyout Committee. “It sort of boggles the mind that a whole community is ready to go away and this is a community where for the most part people have lived there for years and years.”

By his count, 170 of 184 homeowners who live in the Fox Beach area, a section of Oakwood Beach about four miles south of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, have said they want to get bought out.

If other areas of the country are any guide, it could take 15 months to more than two years for the transactions to close.

Listen above to the entire interview between host Soterios Johnson and WNYC's Matthew Schuerman above.