Hello, World!
(These photos are also on facebook, but not the stories. Since all of our family is not on
facebook, I put them on the blog.)
I tried to get these photos moved around some, but the website was being tricky. These were all taken last Saturday, when Frank and I and David went to New York to help with storm damage. I typed in the stories, but they are AFTER all the photos, at the bottom of the blog post.
If you
click on the photos you can see them a lot
bigger, too.
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| Police were everywhere, sadly in case of looting |
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| Toboggans to drag the debris to the street |
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| Interviewing a resident trying to clean up |
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| Supplies provided for volunteers |
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| David models the 'Helping Hands' pinny |
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| Frank adds more SLUDGE to the pile: wet insulation, drywall & wood |
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| Binoculars full of sea water |
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| David helps clear debris. The mask is because it was so dusty. |
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| The basement window was a portal for trash, to be loaded onto the toboggan |
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| ready to drag the next load of muck |
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| Collection of player piano rolls of music |
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| Storybook that was floating for days |
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| Now THIS is an old album! |
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| Blurry, yes, but I'm holding one of the ceiling panels we were tearing out. |
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| My boot. |
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| Thank you, Rustic Crust, for free pizza & water for the volunteers. |
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| Frank & David take a pizza and water break |
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| more damaged ocean-front homes |
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| houses and restaurants being renovated |
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| More boardwalk splinters. |
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| picture of Grandpa: submersed in seawater for days |
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| Here is the boardwalk, even that lamppost and railing, lifted up and slammed against the restaurant. |
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| Our Demolition Crew! Fran, whose dad lived here, is in the red jacket. |
Just wanted to give a synopsis of our Saturday.
HURRICANE DAMAGE HELP. Our church has been organizing groups of people to go down to New York, helping clean up the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy 3 weeks ago. It's a long drive anyway (4 hours), but "things being as they are" we were warned it might take 5 hours to get down there.
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| Frank and me. My pinny is on backwards. Don't worry I changed it! :) |
So anyway, this past Saturday, Frank, David and myself drove down past Long Island, to Breezy Point where the storm caused huge amounts of destruction. It was a little overwhelming to just absorb it all. (And I've HAD electricity and the comforts of home for the past 3 weeks.)
PINPOINT THE SPOT. Breezy Point is at the south end of Long Island, NYC. (go ahead,
mapquest "Breezy Point, NY" and zoom in once or twice...it helps to get a visual...) It's kind of this long stretch of sand. On one side is the bay, and on the other side is the Atlantic Ocean. It has a grid of streets, including thousands of homes and dozens of businesses, in quite a few neighborhoods.
SO. MUCH. WATER. 3 weeks ago, Hurricane Sandy caused the bay on one side, and the ocean on the other side,
to come together. The entire stretch of sand of Breezy Point was covered, 5 feet deep in sea water. Imagine walking down your street with water up to your chest or chin. This meant that EVERYBODY's basement windows broke and the water filled their basements up to the ceiling. Some homes had water just up to their front door, while others' homes ("luck of the draw"), 3 or 4 feet lower on the other side of the street, also had a couple of feet of water on their MAIN floor, so TWO levels of their homes were destroyed instead of just one. All cars parked on the streets were under water. Just barely. But 5 feet of water just about covers most normal sized sedans.
DEBRIS REMOVAL. We went to the sidewalk in front of a public school, where our missionaries had equipment for us to use. Shovels, buckets, gloves, masks (for dust), and toboggans. Debris would be loaded onto toboggans, then hauled out to the street. Every night the city would send dump trucks around all the neighborhoods, to collect all the debris on the streets, and haul it away. A few vacant fields away, there are MOUNTAINS of destroyed furniture, drenched drywall and soggy insulation, tons of household items that couldn't handle being submersed in sea water for days.
Once there were 10 people in a group ready to work, they had 2 missionaries go with us to a house on their list, to work. (Residents had been given a phone number to call and request help, free of charge, with their homes. So far there were 200 homes on "the list," and it the list was growing daily.)
LIVING ALONE. That gives you a background. We got there and were assigned to Fran's house. Fran's 96-year-old father "Steven" actually lived in the house by himself. He built it in 1960, and like everyone else, he ignored the evacuation warnings because it was "just a big storm." So when the water rose, this little old man's neighbor "Jeff" watched with horror as water filled the streets, the basements, and kept rising. He waited until the water stopped rising, and swam/waded next door to Steven's house, to let him know what was happening. Jeff described the water level to him. Steven said "I don't believe you." So the Jeff urged him to come to the front door and look for himself. He did, and his eyes got big and he still couldn't believe it.
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| Frank adds more to the pile |
DEMOLITION. Our job was tearing down wall panels, soggy insulation, ceiling panels, and taking all the unsalvageable objects from the basement to the street. We pretty much gutted the basement. Other assignments were not as big. One woman needed help tearing out linoleum in her kitchen. Another family drew a line on the wall and had helpers remove the soppy drywall underneath that line, as high as the water went. Many scrubbed mold off of walls. (so. much. mold. eeeewwwww.) Whatever people need help with, they can call to place their order, and volunteers come to their address.
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| Our stack. The city's dump trucks drive through every night to collect people's debris from the neighborhood curbs. |
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| Boardwalk again, with the pilings in the background, where the boardwalk was before. |
They were getting responses from all along the East Coast, of people who wanted to help. It's such a neat thing to see. But afterwards, we were able to come home and sleep in our comfortable houses. Those people couldn't get away from the mess.
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| I'm standing on the piling taking the picture, see my shadow? | | | | This is where the boardwalk USED to be. |
So, without making this
volumes long, I'll post photos and let you see the area. We walked to the beach at the end, to see damage along the shore.
BOARDWALK SPLINTERS. The storm surge literally lifted the boardwalk up and over about 30 feet, slamming it into the row of houses/hotels/restaurants there. It was pretty overwhelming. Here are photos of those nice houses/hotels/restaurants along the shore, that got hit so hard. And the cement pilings (supports for the boardwalk) where the boardwalk USED to be. The waves lifted it up and over, no problem.
I'm glad we could go help, even a tiny bit. I'm still a little overwhelmed when I look at the photos again.
Kari
ANGELA. I haven't mentioned Angela, but it has been so neat to get to know her, and associating with her has been a great experience for our family. She is a senior with David at Wayland High School. Her extended family is from Taiwan, and her parents have lived here in Wayland for over 20 years.
So the first time we met her was when the missionaries asked us to give her a ride to church. "She goes to school with David and Teresa, and lives just a few miles from you." It turns out that David and Teresa both knew her, and did not know she was learning about the church. We arranged to pick her up, and then when we took her home, David and I went inside to introduce ourselves to her mom.
Angela is such a smart girl. Very sweet, and also a character so she always has people laughing. Over the last few months we have had her over to our house for different things, and we've been there as she's participated in youth and church activities, and learned more about the gospel.
