When
Hurricane Sandy hit, I think we were all a little ill-prepared.
Hurricanes like that just don't happen in New Jersey...at least, they
didn't used to. Sure, we filled our bathtub with water to flush the
toilets and filled pitchers of drinking water, but that was about it. We
were among the very lucky. We lost power for two days. Many of our
friends and family members lost power for over a week and some are still
out. What's worse is the damage it caused in the coastal areas. The
Jersey Shore's iconic boardwalks and piers were destroyed, communities
were devastated, and homes were flooded and torn apart. People
lost their homes and everything they own, some even their lives. It's
something I honestly can't imagine.
In the aftermath of the storm, we've found ways to help: giving to
the Red Cross, donating food and supplies. Yesterday, Kurt rounded up a
bunch of people from work and headed to the shore to help out. The rest
of this post is written by him, since I think it'll come best from him:
Kurt: I want to first thank everyone who has already donated supplies, money or their time to help those affected by this disaster. There is a lot of work to be done and your help is of utmost importance.
Last week, I helped organize a donation of food and supplies to a shelter in Forked River, NJ and put together a group of volunteers to deliver them to the shelter and spend the day helping however we could.
Having now seen some of the shore with my own eyes there is
more devastation than I even could have imagined. It will be a very
long road to recovery and an even longer road to rebuild the communities
that were decimated.
The moment we got to the Lacey United Methodist Church and began carrying in the donated supplies in two things became very
evident: 1) There were many people in the shelter thankful for a warm
meal on a cold day and still looking around in disbelief that their
homes have been destroyed and they have nowhere else to go and 2) The
amount of supplies and food and toiletries piled up around the shelter
was a great start in helping these people recover.
We went to the church yesterday with the expectation that we would be
serving food inside the shelter. After carrying in all our supplies, I
found a guy who looked like he might be in charge and asked him where we
should start helping. He brought us all upstairs into the church
sanctuary, gave us volunteer insurance waivers to fill out and then
asked us to sit down for a half-hour training class that he would run. I
filled out the form and couldn't wait to help but I was confused by the
training class. Was he going to teach us how to pick up a piece of
bacon with tongs and put it on someone's plate? It quickly became clear
that this was a training class about going out into the devastated
communities and helping homeowners clear out their houses and throw away
all the furniture and personal items that the flooding took from them.
When I realized this I started glancing at our other teammates seriously
worried that they only signed up to serve food and didn't want to do
this kind of manual labor. And as I looked at each one of their faces I
realized they were thinking the same thing I was, serving food would be
nice but getting out into the neighborhoods and helping people is even
better. So I relaxed and just paid attention to the advice the
coordinator gave us knowing I was about to go do something I had never done before. The training ended, we packed up some tools and
supplies into a coworker's van and headed out into Bayville, NJ where we
got to see firsthand just how violent these flood waters were.
First we went to the house of an older man named Jim. The flood waters
came well over three feet deep in every room and destroyed basically
everything they touched. We removed all the carpet and carpet padding
from the entire house while making sure to not damage any of his
personal effects (like two urns containing the remains of his two
sisters and a glass cabinet filled with hundreds of breakable glass
figurines). After cleaning out everything we could from his house we
drove around the neighborhood looking for others in need. We handed out
FEMA information and advised them they could go back to Lacey United
Methodist for warm meals or a warm place to sleep. Finally we found
another house and spent the remainder of the afternoon helping an
amazingly strong and loving couple (Larry and Claire) clear out their house. Not only did they lose everything within four feet of the floor in
their house but they also have very obvious damage on their roof that
will require the back of their house to be rebuilt.
We ended the day with sore backs and some ruined sneakers but also
with an understanding that it was worth losing some shoes for what we
were able to accomplish as a team (keep in mind we were dressed for
serving bacon and Ramen noodles all day!).
If you want to donate or volunteer to the church we worked with they are
gladly accepting any and all volunteers. And just to be clear, none of
us are affiliated with Lacey United Methodist Church, that is not
something they care about when finding volunteers to help with this
effort. The church is running a free shelter, providing free meals and
coordinating free assistance with any volunteer willing to drive down
there and give their time. If you get the chance, donate some food, water, clothing, pillows or blankets. And if you want to take it a step farther, contact a local shelter and go make your own memory. The satisfaction you get from reaching out and helping someone in need is payment enough...but the gratefulness in the eyes of Jim, Claire or Larry at a time when their lives have been turned completely upside down was enough for me to go do it again. See you next week Bayville, I'll be back next week with even more friends to do whatever we can for you.
If you would like to donate supplies, let me know. I'd be happy to pick them up from you and deliver them personally to the shelter at:
Lacey United Methodist Church
203 Lacey Road
Forked River, NJ 08731
(609) 693-5222
You can also donate to the Red Cross here.
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