Hell of a job. Barry!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

A Starting Line And A Dump: Staten Island, The Forgotten Borough

The baseball field behind Egbert Middle School is pitch black as our journalist team, led by Liam (who prefers his last name not be used), a Staten Island resident who swam flood waters to rescue neighbors as the nearby ocean swallowed his community, walk down an unlit street strewn with the detritus of Hurricane Sandy’s watery rage. Liam wants to show us what the neighborhood has been abuzz over: the site of what was a makeshift morgue, in the hopes that we might challenge what many here in Midland Beach see as an official orchestrated attempt to downplay Sandy’s death toll.

Midland Beach, a tight-knit working class neighborhood on the Island, has largely been washed away. What remains are uninhabitable homes and harsh utility floodlights that pierce the inky darkness to discourage looters, as unmarked police cars patrol the shells of former neighborhoods.

It is the closest to Hell any of us have ever been.

“It was in here,” he says as he beckons us to enter.

Taking just a few steps yields the stench of death. Like this smell, the truth of what happened here isn’t easily dismissed.

As with any story that spreads through a tight-knit community, especially in a disaster, there are inconsistencies and friends-of-friends third and fourth-hand accounts to rely on. Some say the flood victims, which rumor has it are to be found within the school, broke into the premises to seek shelter from the rising waters or the cold, only to meet with tragedy. Others claim that the bodies were found elsewhere and the school was used because the nearby Staten Island University Hospital’s morgue, with a capacity of no more than 50, could not handle the intake.

Rumors are natural, but this isn’t sensational gossip.

Earlier in the day, a New York City Housing Authority administrator [name withheld] at the South Beach housing development told us how her friend, a nurse, had been relocated to Midland after her hospital in Manhattan was evacuated. When we inquired specifically about the rumored school-cum-morgues, she said she could confirm that the school had been used as a morgue, and that the actual death toll was much higher. When we tracked down her friend, the nurse, she declined our request for comment. The NYC Housing Authority administrator later recanted her assertion over the phone, after telling us she had gone out to dinner with Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro, and that she now accepted the official death toll of 18. However, the rumor was subsequently corroborated by an Egbert Middle School teacher, who wishes to remain anonymous. When questioned by us, she confirmed that the school wouldn’t open Monday morning because it was being used as a temporary morgue.

A sanitation worker and Staten Island local, holding his hands to his head in horror upon seeing the destruction on Cedar Grove Avenue for the first time, repeated again and again, “They’re lying,” – he was referring to the death toll. He told us of another New York Department of Sanitation employee, only 22 years old, who was part of a crew that “lifted 50 bodies into a front-end loader” in the Midland neighborhood just a day earlier. Workers from the Sanitation Department were a constant sight as they helped residents clean up debris.

The morgue rumor becomes even more disturbing when one takes into account the behavior of local press, such as the Staten Island Advance. In an early report, the Advance mentions a temporary morgue site off of Bedford and Mason Avenues – Egbert Middle School’s location – yet later Sandy reports in the paper make no mention of this. The Advance offered no retraction, but the makeshift morgue item was there…

And then vanished without explanation.

Contrast the reliable testimonies of Midland Beach residents with the strange behavior of the local press and adamant denials from local officials [see official statement] and one begins to see a narrative emerge: Regardless of whether Egbert Middle School was or is still being used as a makeshift morgue, the death toll in this forgotten borough that is a casualty of political expediency is likely much higher than officials would like the public to know.

We return the following day to volunteer where needed and talk to the people who call Midland Beach their home. It is the day of what was to be the 2012 New York Marathon.

“This is all Staten Island is to them – a starting line and a dump,” Chris Rich, a Staten Island firefighter tells us as he cleans up debris and mud from his gutted house. Throughout his neighborhood today, New York City marathon runners prance through decimated streets, leaping over piles of donations yet to be distributed, bringing severe congestion to a community just beginning to regain its senses after the catastrophe. To place it in even sharper relief, according to Rich, it was only that very morning that authorities had gotten around to removing three bodies floating in Bay Street Marina. One was tied to a pier to avoid it washing down shore. The person who reported the bodies was told that they would be left for the time being as efforts were to be exclusively “rescue” oriented, eschewing “recovery.” While the Staten Islanders were, and are, still counting their dead, they felt as if they were expected to indulge catastrophe tourism.

“These aren’t Christmas lights,” Rich says, appalled by runners and the attendant onlookers taking in the destruction and pausing for photographs with shell-shocked locals. “People are looking for their wedding rings…These people should be shot,” he says, referring to the vast number of runners who arrived on the island to jog the marathon despite its cancellation.

The ultimate cancellation of the New York City Marathon on Sunday, which would have started on the Island, was an empty political gesture. Michael Bloomberg, NY’s billionaire Mayor, had fought tooth and nail to satiate corporate sponsors and have the Marathon commence on time. He was forced to cancel at the eleventh hour, not out of respect for the suffering of locals or for prudent administrative reasons, but because the public outcry over the issue forced his hand.

Time and time again, we speak to residents who are disgusted by the marathon runners, who seemingly use the Islanders’ misery as a photo opportunity. Yet his decision to return at least two generators slated for use during the marathon to New Jersey once the event was canceled was the last straw for Rich. It is widely reported that these generators could have powered 400 homes – something Staten Islanders desperately need. Already their walls and floors are spawning mold and creating hazardous conditions that will likely render their homes permanently uninhabitable.

It is a cruel sort of political maneuvering. Residents in and around Midland Beach are left to fend for themselves as the Red Cross – as of last weekend – were still rejecting volunteers. Meanwhile FEMA was merely handing out business cards on Friday as they distributed food that could barely nourish families of two or more. We would later learn that fully-furnished, non-toxic FEMA trailers – at the time of this article’s publication – sit less than two hours away in a Wilkes Barre, PA lot.

One local nurse, employed by Columbia University, was denied an opportunity to volunteer by the Red Cross, ostensibly because she, an educated professional, could pose an insurance liability. “People are going to die out there tonight,” she said. When she tried to drive supplies over the Verrazano bridge, she was ID’d and then denied entry.

There is more, however, that sheds light on Bloomberg’s disconnected and cruel countenance upon those in whom he does not see a personal economic or political interest. A borough firefighter who prefers to remain nameless relates the story of how two nights ago the mayor personally ordered police at the 122 Precinct to either arrest or otherwise disperse volunteers who refused to cease relief efforts on Father Capodanno Boulevard, which runs close to the Lower Bay and was slammed by Hurricane Sandy. We ask him what he thinks the mayor’s motive is for doing so: “They [bloomberg and his administration] didn’t want cameras coming down here and seeing people helping people, they wanted it to look like FEMA or the Red Cross was helping. The fact of the matter is, it’s not. Down here, it’s people helping people,” he says.

The 122 Precinct commander refused to obey Bloomberg’s order, instead ushering people off of the street and into a parking lot, away from any network news cameras. The consistent answer from Staten Islanders to Bloomberg’s misprision was a defiant self-sufficiency and tirelessly persistent community-mindedness.

It was clear that the only ones willing to be responsible for helping Staten Island would be its inhabitants. Local groups such as the Hallowed Sons, a collective of former firefighters and police officers, were seen on Cedar Grove Avenue, in the nearby town New Dorp, giving out hot meals. They were also organizing roving bands of teenagers, who, armed with dust masks and shovels, were helping gut uninhabitable basements and garages.

In Midland Beach, we come across Kelly, who arrived from Boston with a raft and shovels to help his uncle Mike save his home. After just four days, the garage was beginning to mold. Mike’s wheelchair-bound neighbor had died in the flood, despite the best efforts of those trying to rescue him. One of Mike’s daughters was out delivering supplies to others who, in their words, had it much worse.

Kelly offers to put us up for the night. “We have a generator and heat,” he says, as the men pass beer around. Their hospitality and determination is characteristic of Island residents. “Come back in a year, you’ll see a new house!”

http://indypendent.org/2012/11/12/starting-line-and-dump-staten-island-forgotten-borough

[JohnR! 5,495]

Here is copy from a local newspaper, with an update on the situation in SI.

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/11/fema_volunteers_visit_staten_i.html

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Sporting a white binder full of disaster relief information for homeowners hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, Lisa Barnett and her small team of community relations volunteers for FEMA went door-to-door in Eltingville to assure folks that help is here.

Ms. Barnett is one of 140 people assigned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help Staten Islanders after the devastation.

"People are kind of coming out of the shock of [the damage]," said Ms. Barnett, a community relations specialist, who was wearing a navy blue FEMA jacket and name tag so she could be easily identified as she made her way along Richmond Avenue toward Tennyson Drive on Friday afternoon. "They're trying to get the processes started with insurance companies and FEMA. It seems it's happening quickly."

Going into the weekend, FEMA expected to have 786 volunteers in place to help New Yorkers. The agency's community relations squad, officially called the Surge Capacity Force, moves from house to house, knocking on every door and speaking to homeowners. They answer questions, provide information on filing claims, and jot down residents' requests and complaints.

"We make sure we stay in the neighborhoods affected," said Ms. Barnett, a resident of Hobart, Okla. who arrived on Staten Island the day after Sandy.

"They want to be here to help the survivors," said Cheryl Seminara, manager of the FEMA development program. "They're literally going door-to-door, saying 'How are you?' and 'Have you registered? What do you need?' They're pointing people in the right direction."

The Surge Capacity Force comprises folks from numerous agencies in the Department of Homeland Security.

Also helping in the New York area are 216 members of FEMA Corps, people ages 18-24 who are assigned to disaster preparedness, response, and recovery activities, providing support in areas ranging from working directly with disaster survivors to supporting disaster recovery centers to sharing valuable disaster preparedness and mitigation information with the public.

Only a few miles from Zone A locations decimated by Sandy is the TS Kennedy, a 540-foot training ship stationed off Front Street in Stapleton. It is serving as home base, including lodging, for the hundreds of FEMA volunteers helping in this region.

Terry Windham lives in Fredericksburg, Va. She has primarily assisted Brooklyn residents.

"This is a well-maintained ship that came out of Massachusetts," he said. "They have a great crew, they feed us well, they take care of us. They've bent over backwards for us."

The ship's captain, Tom Bushy, called the Kennedy a tremendous asset.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Staten Island man calls for answers, leadership after Sandy

[Darnell 8,479]

I'd be happier to learn of the 2000-man fema employee crews that showed up, instead of this volunteer force.

#######?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Many on NY's Long Island still dark after Sandy

HICKSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — More than 70,000 customers of Long Island Power Authority in New York were without electricity Monday, two weeks after Superstorm Sandy struck, and the often-criticized government entity mostly blamed factors beyond its control.

LIPA had restored power to nearly 1.1 million customers by Monday morning. Of those still in the dark, 46,300 mainly along Long Island's south shore and Rockaway Peninsula had water damage to electrical panels and wiring and their service can't be restored without an inspection and possibly repairs.

State officials have criticized the utility for poor customer communications after Tropical Storm Irene last year and for insufficient tree trimming maintenance. LIPA, a nonprofit whose board is chosen by the governor and lawmakers, contracts with National Grid for service and maintenance.

The lack of power restoration for a relative few in the densely populated region at the heart of the storm reinforced Sandy's fractured effect on the area: tragic and vicious to some, merely a nuisance to others.

Perhaps none of the utilities have drawn criticism as widespread, or as harsh, as LIPA.

"We certainly understand the frustration that's out there," LIPA's chief operating officer, Michael Hervey, said in a conference call late Sunday. But, he said, the storm had been worse than expected, no utility had as many workers in place beforehand as it would have liked, and the power was coming back rapidly "compared to the damage that's been incurred."

LIPA has said it knows that customers aren't getting the information they need, partly because of an outdated information technology system that it is updating.

"I was so disgusted the other night," said Carrie Baram, 56, of Baldwin Harbor, who said she calls the utility three times a day. "I was up till midnight, but nobody bothered to answer the telephone."

Executives said Sunday that they were working on setting up information centers near the most heavily damaged areas. The company also said it had deployed 6,400 linemen to work on restoring power, compared to 200 on a normal day.

"'They're working on it, they're working on it' — that would be their common response," Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano said, describing LIPA's interaction with his office.

He said LIPA had failed to answer even simple questions from its customers and that Sandy's magnitude wasn't an excuse.

Cleanup continues in New York and New Jersey, which bore the brunt of the destruction. At its peak, the storm knocked out power to 8.5 million in 10 states, and some during a later nor'easter. About 73,000 utility customers in New York and New Jersey remained without power late Sunday, most of them on Long Island.

On hard-hit Staten Island, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano visited with disaster-relief workers Sunday in the Midland Beach neighborhood, which is still devastated two weeks after Sandy hit.

Napolitano said "a lot of progress" had been made since the storm hit and especially since her last visit 10 days earlier.

"It seems like a different place," she said. "You can really tell the difference."

But, she added, there was a lot more to do. "The last big chunk" to solve, she said, is the question of how quickly power can be returned to thousands of homes without it.

If homes are not inhabitable even after power returns, she said, the government is finding temporary apartments and hotels where evacuees can stay — preferably in the same community so kids can continue going to the same schools.

http://news.yahoo.com/many-nys-long-island-still-dark-sandy-172354455.html

Edited November 12, 2012 by The Patriot

[Danno 1,228]

Hey, Barry got his Photo-op at the beach, what more do you want?

It's not like the media is going to hound him about it......heII we can't even get answers when our 4 people in Libya get predictably killed.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Hey, Barry got his Photo-op at the beach, what more do you want?

It's not like the media is going to hound him about it......heII we can't even get answers when our 4 people in Libya get predictably killed.

It's Staten Island. Wasn't that Archie Bunker's old neighborhood? Maybe that is why the place is mostly being ignored. And the dead bodies are being kept on ice, until after the election becomes "official" next month.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Good thing we have FEMA

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

NYC should be just fine as long as homeless people there aren't eating unhealthy foods. And no need for the national guard...they have guns.

Edited November 12, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[Ban Hammer 13,569]

NYC should be just fine as long as homeless people there aren't eating unhealthy foods. And no need for the national guard...they have guns.

they voted already, they're not important anymore.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

they voted already, they're not important anymore.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/hurricane-sandy-gas-for-sex-fuel-shortage_n_2082013.html?utm_hp_ref=business

Hurricane Sandy Fuel Shortage Spurs Sex For Gas Ads On Craigslist