Hurricane Sandy: Rockaway Beach Aftermath

I'm living a charmed life on the UES at the moment, I have heat, power, running water, grocery stores, bars, restaurants and gyms are open.  The only inconvenience is having to work from home - as the office is downtown and expected to be without power until Friday or Saturday - and not having access to the servers at the office.  It's like the hurricane never happened in my neighborhood.  I've offered up the use of my facilities to those I know who have been less fortunate, but the people I know who lived downtown were all able to stay with friends and family uptown and are all doing fine and the people who would love to take me up on my offer are all pretty much trapped in their neighborhoods.

To be honest work is the last thing on my mind right now, I'd rather be out there doing something to help, and yesterday I'd hoped to volunteer to help deliver meals on wheels on foot to some of the elderly people in my neighborhood as their usual volunteers were unable to get through, but my clients' patience with delayed deliverables is starting to wane and I've started to get a few "I know things aren't great on the East Coast right now, but when can we expect to receive...?" so the pressure is on work-wise. 

Seriously!!

I was interested to read a post by a woman who lives in Seattle but works remotely for an NYC based company on Jezebel about how weird it feels not to be affected by Hurricane Sandy when everyone she works with is struggling.  Girlfriend, you should see how weird it is to live *IN NYC* and not be affected by the Hurricane while just 3 miles south people won't have electricity until Friday or Saturday and are without cell phone service and out in Rockaway, Staten Island, Red Hook among other neighborhoods it's like a war zone. 

I've thrown money at the problem in the absence of being able to provide hands on help for the time being.  You can make your own donation through a number of organizations including the Red Cross and directly to an initiative to support the community in Rockaway via wepay "Relief For Rockaway".  You can also post a message on Tide's Facebook wall asking them to send laundry trucks and volunteers to help Rockaway and Breezy Point.

Thankfully after them being days without power I'm starting to hear from some of my surfer acquaintances who live in the Rockaways, who have been able to charge their cell phones via portable generators.  It's a huge relief to know that people are okay.

NY Surfing Buddies posted this photo on Facebook of what I think is Rockaway Boardwalk and a message that the NYC Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation will be aggregating info and updates to the NY Surfing community in case we can help in any small way.

Aquatic Apes and The Scuttlefish have a lot more photos of the devastation to Rockaway Beach and Breezy Point like this one of the remnants of the Beach 91st St skate park.

Oooofff more photos of the devastation in Rockaway here.  I really feel that the damage in Rockaway, Staten Island and other areas is being under-reported right now.  As these areas become more accessible I'm anticipating seeing the full impact of Sandy.  I really don't agree with the fact that they are planning to go ahead with the marathon on Sunday as this will divert vital resources that are needed elsewhere right now.

Photo from mercurialn's flickr via Gothamist.com

A friend just made it back to his place in Rockaway and posted these photos on Facebook.  People are pissed off at the lack of media coverage when the damage is this extensive and who can blame them.