Public Safety

Hurricane Sandy Relief: Staten Island

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Three weeks after Hurricane Sandy devastated areas of the East Coast, help continues to come into the New York area for survivors – that help is appreciated as many residents still lack basic services and supplies. Leslie Luke, program manager for the County Office of Emergency Services, is assisting FEMA in recovery efforts.

In part one of Luke’s story, he observed unique challenges as he arrived to the area. In part two, Luke shared photos of damage at Breezy Point and distribution centers. In this third part, you will see more photos of Staten Island where the storm destruction is staggering.

Luke recently sent back the following impressions from Staten Island:

As people might expect, humanitarian groups, faith-based organizations and neighbors are offering assistance to survivors at this point.

Over the weekend, tour buses loaded with volunteers from the faith community arrived on Staten Island to assist with debris clean up and mucking out homes with water and mud damage. The various groups dispersed across the island to assist those in need.

An offshoot of the Occupy New York group calling themselves Occupy Sandy has set up a distribution center in a local church to provide services and supplies to residents and volunteers.

The local church’s disaster relief efforts are managed by a retired NYPD officer. The officer is coordinating fellow retired and active officers to run a shelter at night for volunteers at the church. He and the other officers also cook and run feeding operations for residents and volunteers.

What people might not expect is that three weeks post event, some areas of the city are still without power.  Law enforcement and traffic officials still staff intersections without traffic lights.  Portable light towers illuminate the evenings.  When the temperatures in the area fluctuate between a high of 45 and low in the 20s, shelters without full power are problematic.

In some areas, the water still isn’t safe to drink even with a boil water alert. Gas rationing is still going on in Manhattan and 2,000 hospital beds remain out of service.  Rental cars are at a premium as many were damaged by the storm.

While in New York, I was asked to discuss some of San Diego County’s disaster planning initiatives with Westchester County leadership. Westchester County is one of the counties currently under the Presidential Emergency Declaration. I talked about establishing community and business partnerships prior to a disaster, so that services, equipment and supplies can be more efficiently delivered when needed.

SD County’s Advance Recovery Initiative that trains County staff in response and recovery operations before an emergency was another topic of interest to New York area officials.

Here at home we encourage residents to be prepared to survive on their own for at least three days. Eventually services and supplies will be available, as they now are on the East Coast, but people should plan to take care of their family and pets during the immediate aftermath of a disaster.

During a disaster isn’t the time to begin personal emergency planning. I’ve seen the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. When you’ve lost everything, the most basic things become luxury items. I would encourage everyone to visit www.ReadySanDiego.org before a disaster to prepare yourself and your family.