"The water was like up to my chest," she said.
But she also can't forget what it felt like when she realized she may lose everything.
"It's very hard for me to come here and not have that feeling of desperation," Taveras said.
She, like thousands of other people, enlisted the help of the Red Cross. She's living in another apartment just down the road.
The Red Cross helped her find the apartment, has helped her pay for her rent and gave her donated furniture.
"They gave me hope back. I felt secure again because someone was there to help me and I want other people to feel the same," Taveras said.
Today, she signed up to become a Red Cross volunteer. Her story isn't uncommon.
The Red Cross says out of the 9 thousand people in the New York region who the Red Cross helped following Sandy more than 1100 of them have now become volunteers.
"When someone who's been helped by the Red Cross comes back to help us, it just helps us help more people," Sam Kille, of American Red Cross, said.
Those with the Red Cross say even though they've had this new influx of new volunteers they could always use more
"We still have thousands of families living in hotels who have nowhere to go," Kille said.
But they may soon have a brand new smiling volunteer knocking on their hotel door.
To learn how you can become a volunteer, please click here to visit the American Red Cross online.
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