In only a week, and with nothing
but the power of Social Media(and a small article in a local newspaper), and
pounding the pavement on foot, I set out to collect donations to bring down to
Staten Island, NY to give to the victims of Hurricane Sandy. In that short
time, the outpouring of support was nothing short of amazing. Donations came
from as far as California. Enough donations, to fill a cargo van to the roof,
not an inch of available space left after packing.
I, along with fellow photographer
Alex Jones and personal friend Dave Lowe, planned to set out on Friday,
November 16, 2012, with a destination of Staten Island, NY, an area that was
hit particularly hard by Sandy. A contact was made through my mother Paula
Wiles using the social networking website BikerHeaven.com. A friend of hers put
us in contact with William Daly, a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union(ATU)
Local 726 out of Staten Island. Using Facebook and text messages, I kept in
touch with William, providing updates on how the collection was going, and what
our plans were for our trip down.
Thursday night, with the help of my
mother, my sister Victoria, and friends Michelle and Nick Campbell and Mike
Walsh, the van was loaded and ready for our journey to New York. We departed
Braintree, Massachusetts shortly after 8am on Friday morning. After making a
stop in Connecticut to purchase food and meet up with Dave, our two car caravan
continued on our way. After dealing with typical New York City traffic, and a
few road hazards along the way, we finally made it to our destination shortly
after 4pm. After unloading all of our donations, ATU726 President Daniel
Cassella treated us to “real pizza, from New York”.
After finding a Holiday Inn in
Clark, NJ to stay for the night, Alex and I set back out to Staten Island to
tour the neighborhoods hardest hit by the storm. We took a ride down to Mansion
Ave, a marina community that had boats littered across the street, slammed into
homes, and flooding as high as 6-8 feet in basements of the homes. Crews from
conEdison were there working to restore the power to the neighborhood. Each
home, however, had to be individually inspected by an electrical inspector
before they could turn the power on to each house. There were still boats
laying on the front lawn of one house, and others in the street. Cars that had
been damaged by water and floating debris were fenced off. Homeowners were
arriving at their homes for the first time in almost 3 weeks. They pulled
belongings out of basements, brought in cleaning supplies, and got to work.
From there, we found ourselves in
the Midland Beach community of Staten Island. At first glance, it looked as
though everything was normal. As we turned off of Hylan Ave and onto Ebbitts
St, it became clear that it was anything but normal. Cars lined the street,
covered in a muddy film from being submerged in flood waters. Homes had holes
in them where walls used to be. Large tents were set up outside a catering hall
on Ebbitts St offering supplies to neighborhood residents. We turned down Cedar
Grove Ave and we realized just how hard this area was impacted by the storm.
There were cars pushed up against homes and on the side of the street. Fences
were mangled and mud still covered the road.
Outside of a church at 128 Cedar
Grove Ave, the New Dorp Beach Friendship Club had set up a serving area,
cooking burgers and hot dogs for residents and volunteers. Alex and I asked if
we could join them and were welcomed by the Pastor in charge. We set up our
table and portable kitchen and went to work, cooking burgers and hot dogs as
well. As fast as we could cook them, they were gone. As the day went on, the
crowd only got bigger. Finally, the words “The truck is here!” were exclaimed
by some of the people around us. A large box truck had arrived, full of donated
items and supplies. They quickly got to work unloading the truck and lining up
the supplies on the sidewalk. They were organized neatly so that anyone in the
area could come down and collect anything they needed to help clean up and
start the rebuilding process. Power was still out in the area and crews were
working to install temporary water pipes.
At one point, a small group of
cameras showed up and we quickly realized it was New York Governor Andrew
Cuomo. He had come out to the neighborhood, accompanied by Paul Tuttle, Jr. of
Orange County Choppers, a motorcycle builder made famous by a television show
on the Discovery Channel. They spoke with residents, toured the damage, and
offered words of encouragement.
After 4 hours of cooking food and
talking with residents and volunteers, all of our supply was gone. We cleaned
up the brand new portable camping kitchen that Alex had purchased and donated
it to a family across the street from the church.
As we departed New York with the
sun setting behind us, we knew that there was still a long way to go for the
people of Staten Island and the rest of New York and New Jersey impacted by
Hurricane Sandy before their lives will resemble anything close to normal. Our
thoughts and prayers are with them, as they work tirelessly to get back to a
normal way of life, and rebuild everything that was destroyed by this historic
storm.
All content Copyright ©Kevin Wiles, Jr 2012
