Cleaning sand sounds like one of the most tedious tasks imaginable, but the Army Corps of Engineers has been doing it for more than a month now in the Rockaways thanks to Hurricane Sandy. All of the sand displaced by the storm needs to be run through giant sand-cleaning sifters before it can be put back on the beaches. The sifters' perfect cones of clean sand currently fill the Jacob Riis parking lot, making it look like the Egyptian desert rather than the coast of Queens. [NYT]
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