When Rachel Rivera heard that New York City would be divesting from fossil fuel companies, she was in the pediatric psychiatric ward of Woodhull Hospital. Rivera, a climate activist who has spent much of the past five years urging the city to do just that, was there visiting her 11-year-old daughter, Marisol. And, though other young patients were resting in their beds nearby, the mother and daughter screamed with joy at the news.

The two could be forgiven for their noisy outburst given how hard they have worked to push New York City to take action on the climate — and how much bad news they’ve had to handle along the way. The Riveras’ spate of misfortune dates back to another climate landmark: Hurricane Sandy.

Marisol was just 5 when Sandy hit. That night in October 2012, while the storm raged outside and the little girl was asleep in the family’s Bed-Stuy apartment, her mother heard a loud cracking noise coming from the bedroom. Rivera ran into the room and grabbed her daughter just moments before the ceiling collapsed, raining wood and debris onto the bed where she had been sleeping.

Wearing just a tank top, flip-flops, and shorts, Rivera ran out into the rain carrying Marisol wrapped in a blanket. The two spent that night at an emergency shelter. And, because the storm damage left their apartment uninhabitable, Rivera along with Marisol and her four siblings, who had been staying with relatives during Sandy, spent the next year in an odyssey through the shelter system.

Rivera responded to the ordeal with action. She helped distribute food and clothing to other Sandy survivors and translated between Spanish speakers affected by the storm and English-speaking volunteers. Over the past year, she has joined the swell of activists from 350.org; New York Communities for Change, where she is a board member; and other groups pressing city officials to tackle climate change. She was arrested for civil disobedience at two of those protests.

The steady stream of teach-ins, rallies, marches, and leafleting events, which Rivera often attended with at least one of her children, has brought stability and gratification to a life upended by the storm. “It calms me,” Rivera said of the activism. “I know that I’m bringing awareness that people can change the way things are, that they can go to clean energy and stop what they’re doing to worsen climate change.”