Today we delivered to Lindenhurst, NY. This is the farthest west I’d personally been so far – and had the most destruction. There was a great outreach program there where people just swarmed a huge parking lot – dropping off supplies for people in need. The program then distributed to those families.
The closer you get to NY on Long Island, the worse the damage seemed to be. Most of the homes that were the worst hit were not the best areas for the Red Cross to be 3 weeks after the storm – why? Because they weren’t even there. They were not able to live in the homes and some barely even able to begin to rebuild. But we did find areas where they were families that didn’t have the funds or resources to leave the areas and had to double up with other families. One home had 5 families living together – with several babies. We delivered tons of diapers there. Others with a bit more resources lived in trailers or campers out in their driveway. We met one family that had 5 people living in their camper in the front yard – the mother said they were driving each other crazy at this point. 3 weeks out! And it was going to be a long time before they could move back in. Some were still able to have a sense of humor – look closely at the writing on the house in the featured image (click to make it bigger).
Makes me not want to complain about anything. Hope it sticks with me for a while.