It’s been more than a week since Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast of the United States, and still sections of the world’s greatest city are at a standstill, having to deal with no electricity, no heat, no gasoline, traffic congestion and water damage that you could not have imagined.
The media have well documented the aftermath of the disaster. The pictures need no captions. The destruction is all too apparent. And while Manhattan seems to have gotten the bulk of the relief efforts, people in many neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens remain frustrated and angry.
While Breezy Point has captured the minds of the public, not far away the neighborhood of Belle Harbor responds to its own Armageddon out of the spotlight of the cameras. St. Francis de Sales parish, Belle Harbor, was particularly hard hit. For a while during the storm, the parish school building seemed to be in jeopardy when fire completely destroyed the neighboring residence.
“Destruction, there’s no other way to describe it,” says Msgr. John Brown, pastor. “We’re all suffering. We’ll get through this together.”
Msgr. Brown points to what is the parish gymnasium, the scene of many athletic struggles. Now it is home to a struggle of a different kind as volunteers and community organizers attempt to organize donations of clothing, sanitary supplies and food.
Catholic Charities was immediately on the scene, says Msgr. Brown. “Before the government came, Catholic Charities was here,” he says.
While the scene can appear chaotic, Msgr. Brown assures that “it’s getting more organized as we move along.”
Theresa Spizzirri, who was helping coordinate the efforts, explains that she was there “just so these people don’t feel like they’ve been forgotten.”
Helping Hands
Outside on the sidewalk adjacent to St. Francis de Sales School, volunteers spoon out dishes of hot baked ziti. The young volunteer with the spatula explains that the food just keeps coming from people inside and outside of the neighborhood.
Sister Ellen Patricia Finn, O.P., associate director of Catholic Charities, walks among the crowd of rescuers wearing a teal colored Catholic Charities disaster response team vest. “They didn’t teach this in the novitiate,” she says as she offers a helping hand.
She explains how much she admires the faith and the strength she has witnessed in this community, so hard hit in the past by 9/11 and the crash of Flight No. 87.
Young people scurry about in yellow vests emblazoned with their affiliation – “The Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints.”
On the side streets, Sanitation trucks push through the sand-clogged ways, picking up debris from the flooded basements. At the end of each street, mounds of sand sit, a vain attempt to once again see the pavement.
A stream of National Guard trucks make their way to an unknown site ready to serve at a moment’s notice. Police and firefighters are omnipresent, directing traffic and maintaining pumps that clear basements.
One wonders what a calamity it would have been if the City had tried to run the Marathon through the streets of the boroughs. That will come on another day, when we’re in a better place, when we all can truly celebrate.
