The city has teamed with AirBnB so you can offer space in your home to displaced fellow New Yorkers by signing up online.
NYC Service, Occupy Sandy and other volunteer groups (including Sandy Help, shown above, featured early on in the NYT) continue to provide crucial support to people in distress, particularly by reaching homebound elderly that remain without power or heat.
If you can spare the time to volunteer in person this week or on the weekend, your help would be received with gratitude. Buildings along miles of beaches or waterfront, in view of the Manhattan skyline, are in rough condition from the storm and loss of heat; because of the second storm, progress in getting services back has been delayed. Volunteer groups have formed a bridge between the millions of New Yorkers and others around the country who want to help with donations and support, and the tens of thousands of trapped residents along the waterfronts:
A volunteer describes a trip to the Rockaways. A more challenging description of Red Hook comes from the Daily News.
Bob Hardt of NY1 continues his first person account.
596 Acres: “Here are today’s requests direct from people on the ground in the Eastern part of the Rockaway peninsula, where power is still absent and the train won’t run for a long time. Note that there are specific needs at some sites. GAS & oil for the generators is a priority. And 100′ extension cords would allow the creation of a warming site in a church in Far Rockaway. We continue to do our very best. We are so glad that you are doing your best too. Dress warm. Walk carefully on the ice.” http://596acres.org/en/news/rockaway-current-needs/
Surfers continue to respond.
A megalist of current information, via a shared Google doc — this shows the scope of the crisis and also the scale of citizen-to-citizen response. (It’s big and may take a few seconds to load.)
Ways to help from your desktop:
Solar generators: a way to leave the Rockaways better, and more forward-thinking, than before. They are fundraising here. (We can vouch for R. David Gibbs, the engineer on the right side of the photo — he’s a Pratt industrial design grad and a genius with solar and technology.)
Occupy Sandy’s Amazon gift registry has been popular. If you scour their online presence, you can find images of their central locations filling and emptying as goods pour in. And apparently they have made some unlikely allies, as even New Yorkers that might not be receptive to their OWS origins respect a team that gets stuff done. This is also the rare wedding gift registry that is now asking for gas cans to refill generators.
Sandy as a way to begin to change society, considered by Tina Rosenberg in the NYT.