Now and then, members of my family tell me I should write a book about the things I encounter while traveling. Although this blog post may not be what they had in mind, it sure is a story worth sharing.
All videos were found on YouTube and were made by either television companies or volunteers working with various relief groups.
So. This is a long post, but it's worth it. Make the time to read the whole entry and follow all the links. Here we go.
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Just a bit of a rundown for those of you who weren't watching the news post-Sandy:
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Just a bit of a rundown for those of you who weren't watching the news post-Sandy:
1. Hurricane Sandy has been the 2nd costliest hurricane in North American history (the 1st being Katrina).
2. New York City saw record storm surges of 14 feet during Sandy.
2. New York City saw record storm surges of 14 feet during Sandy.
3. Sandy was the largest storm (by diameter) to ever hit the northeast and mid-Atlantic states.
4. Hurricane Sandy took 253 lives with her.
5. Thousands of people are still without power and water (it's been a month and a half).. (and it's winter).
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Two important videos that will frame this blog post:
Two important videos that will frame this blog post:
2. This video (also recorded before Sandy made landfall) shows how seriously Obama and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) were taking Hurricane Sandy.
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The story:
My friend Marina and I were in New York City one week after Hurricane Sandy left parts of the city flooded, ruined and without water or power. While we were there, we volunteered our time to work with Occupy Sandy Relief in Brooklyn.
My friend Marina and I were in New York City one week after Hurricane Sandy left parts of the city flooded, ruined and without water or power. While we were there, we volunteered our time to work with Occupy Sandy Relief in Brooklyn.
The two of us went down to St. Jacobi Church in Brooklyn (Occupy Sandy's headquarters) for 2 days. This is where they organize most of their efforts, all of which seemed really well-organized and coordinated. Whereas the first day was spent with Marina and I moving donated clothing from the Occupy Sandy headquarters to a local Salvation Army (people donated too much clothing and not enough time/love/labour), the second day looked a bit different than this.
During the second day, I was sent out on a mission. Three volunteers and myself were sent to the Far Rockaway on the Rockaway Peninsula; an area of New York City which was hit hard by the storm(I can't stand the 'interviewer' in this one, but you get the idea). We drove out from St. Jacobi Church in Brooklyn and it took us about 30 minutes to get there. Our mission was to a) help with the movement of donations flooding into recently established 'community hubs', and to b) help our friend, a coordinator with Occupy Sandy, in completing 'Needs Assessments' on every community hub in the Rockaways. We visited all of them (eight, I believe) and helped with the movement of anything from clothing, water, batteries, sanitation products, boots and cooked food while talking with victims alongside community hub organizers. It had been seven days since Hurricane Sandy left the Rockaways.
When moving supplies from trucks into the most organized (by far) of community hubs, it looked a bit like this.
The stories of residents and the scenes they were apart of appeared a bit like this (this video is of Day 14 without power nor water in the Far Rockaway).
National emergency relief organizations (American Red Cross, FEMA) had made it to the Rockaways only 2 or 3 days before we were there. In other neighbourhoods where we were sent, there had been no aid nor relief given by any organized group from outside of the Rockaways. Residents sat without power or water, waiting for relief which never came. This was one week after Hurricane Sandy.
Picture not having power or water for a week. Now picture not having power or water while you have a mix of sewage and salt water sitting in your basement from when the ocean was in your livingroom and when the sewage system began to backup. Remember - one whole week.
Keep that all in mind, and ponder this. And this.
Have you ever thought of yourself to be a good problem solver? Do you trust that the government or an organized group will help you in an emergency situation or time of need?
Hmm. To put it nicely, you may need to work on your problem solving skills.
In order to help complete the Needs Assessments for our coordinator friend with Occupy Sandy, one thing the four of us did at every community hub we went to in the Rockaways was talk to people. We talked to people who brought supplies from small-scale relief groups, we talked to victims who waited outside of churches in long lines to get water, families who brought garbage bags of coats from out-of-town, volunteers who cooked food en mass, kids who sat patiently as their parents tried to talk to someone who knew what was going on, community organizers from various housing projects and residents who turned their homes into places of refuge for flood victims. Based on the conversations the four of us had with these people it was clear: Every national emergency relief organization failed at doing what they were suppose to do.
In order to help complete the Needs Assessments for our coordinator friend with Occupy Sandy, one thing the four of us did at every community hub we went to in the Rockaways was talk to people. We talked to people who brought supplies from small-scale relief groups, we talked to victims who waited outside of churches in long lines to get water, families who brought garbage bags of coats from out-of-town, volunteers who cooked food en mass, kids who sat patiently as their parents tried to talk to someone who knew what was going on, community organizers from various housing projects and residents who turned their homes into places of refuge for flood victims. Based on the conversations the four of us had with these people it was clear: Every national emergency relief organization failed at doing what they were suppose to do.
As least it was getting a bit of news coverage.
No one was prepared for Hurricane Sandy. Not the residents, the federal government, FEMA, the NYC Subway System, Wall St., Occupy Sandy Relief, myself, other volunteers, Food Banks, media sources, shelters, insurance companies, Mitt Romney... no one.
Time goes on. One month after Hurricane Sandy, thousands are still without power or water. The basements which had sewage and salt water in them are now growing mold. Also, the "Rockaway Cough" is actually a new term used to describe a new localized sickness caused by the lack of relief.
Also, for those who do have water, issues of water contamination have surfaced. Note that in the last two videos the issues being raised were not caused by Hurricane Sandy. Rather, the more recent issues that residents of the Rockaways have been subjected to have been caused by the lack of accountability and relief.
Had national emergency relief organizations been more able to service vulnerable populations in preparation and response to Sandy, Rockaway residents would have been able to avoid being affected by the ongoing disaster; Hurricane Sandy and the lack of organized aid.
Apart from being the warmest and fuzziest (and definitely the most American...) video in this blog post, this video shows the difficulties associated with organizing, coordinating and logistics planning in a disaster environment. When you have so many people informally working in one of the most unpredictable work environments you could possibly imagine, coupled with the lack of communication and power to help you accomplish a task, what do you do? Really, all you can do is keep going and hope for the best.
So with all of this said, why am I writing about a Hurricane on a blog which is usually about growing kale and riding bikes?
Well!
The wind and water of Hurricane Sandy had as much to do with climate change and food security as the mold currently growing in the basements of flood victims on Coney Island or the generators still powering housing projects in the Far Rockaway.
This story about Hurricane Sandy relief in New York City is merely an illustration, an example of what the future may look like for us and how we will have to adapt to it if we want any sort of change:
1. Must it take one of the largest hurricanes in recorded history to hit North America to get people talking about climate change and how it may be responsible for the destruction seen in the largest city on the continent?
2. In the future, how many environmental and social struggles are we going to be forced to endure to convince people that we may have to radically change the way we live?
3. Based on the response of relief groups in the Rockaways and the lesson and warning Sandy has given us, we can't depend on national emergency relief organizations to help with disaster recovery.
4. What I had learned (not the first time..) while volunteering with Occupy Sandy was this: As in most socio-political dialogues where either political reform or a change to cultural attitudes is necessary to solve a problem which many feel is intrinsically necessary to be solved (i.e., climate change), don't wait.
Don't wait for your municipal government to say it's legal for you to build a chicken coop in your backyard.
Don't wait for the province / territory / state to allocate resources to food banks.
And don't wait for federal agencies to say they're 'on it'. They likely aren't, and there is too much at stake while we're waiting.
Find a way, and do it yourself.
Don't wait for your municipal government to say it's legal for you to build a chicken coop in your backyard.
Don't wait for the province / territory / state to allocate resources to food banks.
And don't wait for federal agencies to say they're 'on it'. They likely aren't, and there is too much at stake while we're waiting.
Find a way, and do it yourself.
who knows what we are going to start finding when we knock
on doors."
- Shlomo, one of the many unpaid Occupy Sandy Relief Coordinators
