I’ve been learning a lot lately about disaster relief – insurance adjusters, the Red Cross, FEMA, tree cutters, water mitigation services, professional drying, pumping water. And shoveling mud. As many as 40,000 New Yorkers have been left homeless after Hurricane Sandy. 80,000 have already filed for Federal relief. Gas stations, often supervised by police, still have lines as long as 6 hours. Many are closed for lack of power.
I spent most of the last week in Staten Island, helping friends with a home located in a flood zone. It truly is a DISASTER, with over 20 dead in Staten Island alone and houses entirely swept away. In the worst hit areas, entire contents of homes sit on front yards, one home after the next, waiting for pickup by sanitation. Generators are everywhere, used to pump water from basements. There is the occasional sound of chainsaws as residents cut their way out of this disaster.
Seawater mixed with raw sewage means that for most, little is salvageable. Carpets must be ripped out, floors completely removed, walls cut away, mold remediated, basements pumped, dried, and sanitized. Electrical systems are completely damaged, as well as appliances and, in many cases, furniture. Many families with extensive damage will take what insurance money they may get, if any, and walk away from their homes.
Emergency public services are OVERLOADED – no one responds or answer phones. The most effective road to recovery in all this? Neighbors, volunteerism or, as a fireman suggested to me, pay for things out of pocket and hope to recover the costs from insurance later. Volunteer groups are everywhere. Michael Blyth, a school teacher at Michael Petrides school, was manning the street I was on with student volunteers able and ready for any task. Vehicles with water and every manner of household cleaners and supplies passed through the neighborhood, as did Army jeeps.
I spent the weekend filling 33 gallon trash bags and rummaging through household belongings, sorting the dry and the damp from those articles soaked with seawater and raw sewage in a house without power, light, or heat. Even when power is restored by the utilities, in homes with heavily flooded basements (as my friend’s was), power cannot be turned on without the risk of explosion. Entire panels and electrical systems need to be replaced. On Sunday, clocks were set back to Daylight Savings time, so we raced against an earlier setting sun in the late afternoon, finishing the day’s work by flashlight as temperatures dipped in a cold house. But as bad as this home had been hit, there was still much worse, and at the day’s end, I was lucky to have a warm, dry apartment to return to with my possessions intact. I can’t exactly say it is joyful, because the experience has left an indelible imprint on my mind.
In the morning, it’s easy getting ready for the day’s work ahead. Rubber boots are the only sensible footwear choice. And you might as well just put on Yesterday’s Muddy Pants…
I can’t even start to imagine the situation you are in. The people that lost their lives, houses that are gone and so forth. And the time and cost to get everything back to normal. Good to hear about all the people volunteering to help.
As an ex-patriate Brooklyn-er in L.A. (and daily follower of this and other NYC blogs) I am damned proud of the response I’ve seen from you, Brian, and others who pitch in to help the most impacted rather than simply curse the darkness. Perhaps, to raise additional awareness, you’d like to pass along this link (below) to an NPR “Talk of The Nation” podcast reporting Sandy’s impact on the physically disabled (those on battery-powered respirators, in wheelchairs etc.).
God Bless all you guys.
http://www.npr.org/2012/11/01/164113455/sandy-especially-tough-on-vulnerable-populations
Paul, Thanks, but I am only helping a friend. The real thanks goes to the volunteers and emergency responders – the FDNY, NYPD, Red Cross and others.
At least you weren’t home staring at that candle…
Thank you for this excellent and realistic post. Your friends are beyond lucky to have you to help them and keep their spirits up. They, as well as you, are going to have to continuously dig very deep into your innermost strengths to get through the next months. Be sure to replenish yourself with good food and sleep, and kindness from a myriad of sources. Emotional traumas are more exhausting than we can imagine.
I am sending this post around to many. Much love to all.
Recovery is the worst part. As time goes on, the dirty work gets worse. The public becomes refocused on other things, but the work must continue and taken to fruition.
We followed Sandy’s progress and destructive path from afar and then watched in horror and disbelief at the aftermath she left. Where do you start? The clean up and recovery of this disaster is immense. So many people, cities and countries left in a disaster zone. Can only pray and send positive thoughts from afar.
Looks like kindness and humanity are shining through in yours and many other’s actions.
Rosie
Great post and photos, Brian. Good to know you’re OK and safe. Your friends are fortunate indeed to have you at their side.
good luck Brian, my prayers go with you and all the victims of Sandy.
the only good thing about these tragedies that I can think of right now is the sense of brotherhood that is cultivated and a person’s chance to shine as a volunteer superstar as you are. HUGS and Love from Canada.
Thank’s for writing this. Now I get the real information I realy wanted. I have just been in New York between Sandy and the snow short before Obama was elected after I waited 7 days to get my flight back to Germany. We had only 5 hours time in New York, sorry, we could not help! We decided not to go into the desastered arias because we did not want to be katastrophy tourists. We decided to go to Manhatten. We came out at the 5th Ave. Everything seemed to be so normal even the halloween pumpkins where still sitting nicely on the ground around the trees. We could hardly understand what happened to the people “around the corner” in Queens or Staten Island . I took many pictures while we where only walking through the streets with many skyskrapers and very interesting looking people all over the place and in the Subway, just looking and making pictures (never had been in New York before) It felt like in a movie or a dream by itself knowing what just happend made it kind of surrealistik. May be it is o.k. to leave you this link here. http://www.geo.de/reisen/community/bild/543387/Stadtmensch
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He looks after high-voltage power transmission and distribution of lines.
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