Occupy Sandy Volunteer Sounds Alarm on 'Humanitarian Crisis,' Near-Complete Absence of Aid (Coney)

[Fire Walk With Me]

Last edited Mon Nov 12, 2012, 11:33 PM - Edit history (2)

Occupy Sandy Volunteer Sounds Alarm on 'Humanitarian Crisis,' Near-Complete Absence of Government Aid in Coney Island Projects

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-marans/occupy-sandy-volunteers_b_2101396.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

The situation in public housing projects in Coney Island, Brooklyn remains a "humanitarian crisis" in which the government and the Red Cross have been nearly completely absent, according to Eric Moed, a volunteer aid worker with Occupy Sandy.

Friday is Moed's fifth day volunteering with Occupy Sandy, an ad hoc hurricane relief group formed by former Occupy Wall Street activists. Moed, an architect from Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighborhood, goes door to door in the 30-40 public housing buildings in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn to distribute food, water and supplies, and help address sanitation and medical needs. The projects in Coney Island remain without power, and often without water and necessities in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Accounts of these conditions have been corroborated in the New York Daily News.

Moed says all of the supermarkets on Coney Island have been flooded or looted.

The result is what Moed describes as a "humanitarian crisis." Sick or older people may be vulnerable to death without heat, or food and water.

(More at the link.)

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Jenna Pope
So, I have a legal question.. (not the first or last time I'm going to say that. hah) Can anybody explain to me why the entire Seaside Heights barrier island is on a lockdown, and if it's actual legal? Please don't give me the "they're just keeping you safe" bullshit. I can understand that they don't want random people coming in for sightseeing, but there's people who live there that need to see what belongings are left and start cleaning up the homes that are salvageable. Residents who live in most of the neighborhoods there can only be bussed in with police escorts, and can only spend an hour there before they need to be bussed back out . The entire barrier island is only accessible to residents between 8am and 3pm, even those who's homes are safe enough to live in.
There's also press who should have access in order to cover this large natural disaster. If the area is unsafe - then just tell us that, and let us decide if we still want to go. I mean, fuck, people cover wars and risk being shot. As journalists, we're willing to take the risks in order to cover the stories. I was there with Giles Clarke today, and both of us have press passes, but were denied access. We were told to go to the police station to see if we could get a police escort, and nobody there seemed to want to talk about it. One officer, who was higher ranking than the others, actually dipped out into a back room once we asked if we could get in. We were finally to speak with the police chief, so we called him, but have yet to hear back from him.
Is there any legitimate, legal reason as to why they have this area on lockdown?

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NYC Sandy Needs ?@NYCSandyNeeds

URGENT: MT @AntDeRosa: Gerritsen Beach needs help, still without heat/power
http://bit.ly/SCmsvF

[japple]

1. Thanks, FWWM for this post. It sounds like worst case scenarios surrounding

every weather catastrophe we've had for the past 20 years. The elderly, poor, compromised are always the ones who suffer. We have got to do better than this. Thank god there were Occupy citizens who were ready, willing, and able to respond albeit a bit late.

[starroute]

2. Not that late -- Occupy Sandy began on Wednesday, October 31

That was one day after the city woke up and started assessing the damage. And they were setting up a recovery center in Coney Island by that Friday. (See http://www.alternet.org/occupy-wall-street/how-occupy-sandys-relief-machine-stepped-post-superstorm-void)

Also, with reference to the article in the OP, these are not "former Occupy Wall Street" people. OWS never went away -- it just became less visible after it was evicted from the park.

[sabrina 1]

5. Yes, thank you for that correction. OWS evolved and has been very active since they

were driven from the public square, where they actually managed to stay far longer than even they had anticipated.

They have been able to mobilize thousands of people on very short notice, which is to their credit and shows without a doubt that they never went away.

But this situation is tragic. Obviously way more help is needed to help those people. Good for them for drawing attention to it.

I understand that the storm affected approx one third of this country but it always seems to be the poor who are the last to get help.

[snot]

3. I'd like to add, I've had serious doubts about the American Red Cross since Katrina, when

they were from certain reports worse than useless (blocking aid from others, refusing aid to gay couples, etc.) Per one report I saw then, the ARC was seen as a cash cow and taken over by conservatives who cut staffing and contract to cronies.

[sabrina 1]

6. I agree. What happened to all the money they got for Katrina and Haiti?

People sent in millions of dollars for the victims of those disasters and yet we have no accounting of where it went.

I will donate to OWS because they are using it solely for the victims without all the red tape, or involvement by the Bushes, as happened with Katrina eg and without all the administrative costs.

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. Something flew past on Twitter today about an RC exec's pay and bonus money. "Big".

[tk2kewl]

4. K&R