Hurricane Sandy one month on - Irish Day of Action reveals many still hurting in the Rockaways

Many still without power and heat one month after hurricane hit

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MOLLY MULDOON,

IrishCentral Deputy Editor

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A digger with a tricolor flag working on Beach 91st Street in the Rockaways

Photo by Molly Muldoon

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MOLLY MULDOON was part of an Irish Day of Action contingent that cleaned homes along the Beach 90 streets.  It was an experience she won’t soon forget.

Buddy is a tall guy. A retired New York firefighter, a dog lover, a Rockaways resident for the past 40 years. His home on Beach 91st Street is just one block from the ocean, an ideal location for an avid surfer like him. But a deadly address for a Category 1 hurricane.

Last Saturday morning was a chilly one, almost one month on from Hurricane Sandy, when Buddy opens the gate outside his three-story house and welcomes a group of 10 Irish volunteers into his basement.  We were there as part of the Irish Day of Action that saw 1,000 volunteers travel to the Rockaways to help with the clean-up effort.

“Keep the gate closed,” he warns us. “Or else my dogs will get out.”

We are armed with shovels, masks and work gloves as Buddy leads us around the back of his house and down the stairs into his basement. It’s dark inside, almost eerie, and a musty smell hangs in the air.

Buddy leads us into the back room, where the walls have already been ripped down and are lying in soggy piles on the floor.

We start by picking up larger pieces of the saturated drywall with our hands. One of the girls comes across a school book and places it on a ledge, hesitant to throw away a personal belonging that may serve as a memory.

Read More: Community spirit of Irish Day of Action in Rockaways captured in pictures

Shovels in hand, we begin to scoop the debris into the trash cans. The men take over the job of carrying the heavy bags outside, as us ladies continue our labor, our shovels scraping against the cement floor.

We fill at least 20 bags. Soon the interior walls that once protected this Rockaways home are lying on the sidewalks in black polythene bags.

In one of the rooms next door, Buddy continued to rip down another wall with a hammer. Lying in the rubble is a Ouija board. “Ouija me a new house,” he jokes, as we begin to gather the debris from the floor.

Buddy stayed in his home just 150 yards from the sea during the storm. “There were waves coming down the block,” he says.

While we work on gathering all the rubble from the floor, a neighbor drops by.

“Get out of here,” he shrieks at Buddy as he descends the stairs to the basement. “I did not know the water came up that high!”

Read More: Community spirit of Irish Day of Action in Rockaways captured in pictures

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