. >> diane niyad made history when she swam 110-miles from cuba to to the united states. this time it's right in the middle of new york city. juan carlos molina explains why. >> reporter: for 48 hours diane niyad is swimming virtually non-stop in this two lane pool built especially for her in the middle of new york city to help the victims of super storm sandy. >> it's a whole focus. those people who endured. my feeling is the least i can do is endure for these 48 hours. >> hurricane "sandy" hit her hard. she said let's go to new york and see if we can do this. >> reporter: she made history tree styling her way from cuba to florida in just under 53 hours. she called that the swim of a lifetime. this swim is about helping people who are still struging a year after "sandy" struck. >>> the least we can do is raise funds and put their stories back on the front pages. >> the family from staten island is one of those families in need. >>> we didn't get much money to evacuate. we had maybe two hours where they finally said, okay, get out." so we packed up half we could that we f