We were in New York City for a total of 5.5 weeks. The first week and a half there, our living quarters was located in Breeze Point, located in the Rockaways, next to Long Island. Since we worked with the National Guard for the first half of the round, we only had a 10 minute commute to work everyday. It was at a very convenient location, but we ended up moving housing to Queens (45 minute commute) to accommodate our basic needs. For example, our grocery shopping went from a 30 minute drive to 10, we now had showers available in the building, we had more space to sleep, and we had a full kitchen and fridge. Whereas at the Breeze Point location, we had to live amongst 40-50 people total in an open space. (We lived and occasionally worked with another Americorps team Blue 2 & Conservations corps of Minnesota)
The first half of our time in New York City was spent with the Army National Guard. We'd show up at Floyd Bennett air field and get briefed with the days tasks. Everyday we would go to Breeze Point, Far Rockaways, or Staten Island to do canvassing (wellness checks) on individual homes. We would team up with the National Guard in groups of 4-5, take a map, choose a grid, and knock on any doors that didn't have heat. We'd ask the owners if they had heat, water, electricity, food, and more. If they didn't have those necessities, then we would provide them with them.
The first day on the job, half my team worked with the National Guard in Breeze Point. In Breeze Point, a fire broke out and as a result, 115 houses burnt down. Two other soldiers and myself canvassed the area, where the houses were still barely standing, but nobody was living there. We talked to a few home owners and they appreciated what we were doing. The pictures won't be able to describe how overwhelming this area was. All the housing appliances such as stoves, washers & dryers, were all rusted. Debris was all over the place, melted down power lines, and all that's left of the houses are the concrete foundations and basements. Truly an eye opening experience on just the first day!
The second half of Sandy Relief was spent getting our hands dirty! Now working with New York Cares, Blue 4 went to an apartment complex in the Rockaways and did some gutting! Wearing our full PPE (coveralls, heavy duty gloves, safety glasses, helmet, earplugs, and TyVek suit) we were able to remove the wood flooring like a bunch of pros! Or so we thought, because for a day we had some volunteers come from Pennsylvania to help out. I was in charge of 5 of them, and I gave them the lowdown of how to do the job. Put the crowbar underneath the flooring, use the hammer to git-r-in, and yank 'er up! Turns out one of the volunteers does flooring for a living and finished the job like no ones business. The guy also looked like Dwayne Johnson on steroids. It was cool working with the volunteers though because it allowed us to step back and supervise, which is something we have to do sometimes.
Also with New York Cares, we took down a full cement patio, cleaned out garages, removed tree stumps, and more! The home owner of the cement patio was a great guy. He's lived in his house for 39 years and he's never had his basement flood despite living right next to the ocean. He said during the storm there was a 17 foot wave, followed by a 36 foot wave. After the water receded, there was so much sand that it fully covered the cars. It's like an aftermath of a huge snow blizzard, but with sand. It was hard to imagine.
As fast as the time went in New York, we definitely made our time there worth every second. Having just 3 days off, we made the most of them also. I went to Manhattan twice and did all the tourist stuff there. I think I annoyed the friends I went to the city with because of all the "Elf" references I would make.
On a more serious note, I am so grateful for the experience I had in New York City. There is a lot of work that still needs to be done and it was hard to leave. With all the groups we worked with, people we've met and putting in hard hours, we had a life changing 5.5 weeks. I will never forget my time on Sandy Relief and hope to respond to more natural disasters in the future! Actually, I hope I don't for the sake of natural disasters never happening, but if there is, I would hope to respond!
Thanks for catching up with my AmeriCorps adventures! I'm having a blast although I just typed this entire blog on my phone! By the way, I'm writing this blog while currently living on an island. Meaning a new blog will be published shortly after this one.
Thanks again, and love you all!
-Connor
