This study aims to better understand how residents and stakeholders in Ansan-si would make sense of the community recovery programs which have been introduced to heal the Sewol Ferry Disaster and gain disaster resilience. To do so, we set up a research question: how do the dialectical tensions play a role in shaping their sensemaking regarding the community recovery program? To answer this research question, we employ the dialectical tension framework to analyze what plays a role in shaping the way in which Ansan residents and stakeholders shape their sensemaking regarding the Ansan-si community recovery program. We have found that there are three dialectical tensions regarding how Ansan-si people would see the community recovery programs: (1) a tension between sufficiency/permanence and limitedness/transition in regard to the memory and condolence of the Sewol Ferry Disaster, (2) a tension between pursuing a special and unique path and exploring a general route in terms of building Ansan-si’s community, and (3) a tension between civic autonomy and local government’s supervision in implementing the community recovery programs. We expect that this study contributes to understand how individuals make sense of an effort to overcome disasters such as the one that Ansan-si’s people experience.