Superstorm Sandy Field Notes

AmeriCares has deployed Hurricane Sandy relief teams to hard-hit communities throughout the tri-state area to fill urgent needs for medical aid and relief supplies. As of today, our teams have delivered dozens of emergency shipments and approved more than $116,000 in grants that together will benefit about 80,000 survivors, including:

A $71,000 grant to the World Cares Center for Operation Winter Warmth and Operation Muck-Out — programs created to help families living in both Far Rockaway and Staten Island. 

Operation Muck-Out begins Sunday, November 11 with volunteer teams working to remove debris and mud from flood-damaged homes in Far Rockaway, and reduce risks of mold-induced respiratory problems. The program is expected to run for at least six months and expand into Staten Island, Long Island, and New Jersey.

Operation Winter Warmth is aimed at helping people without electrical power cope with freezing temperatures. On November 13, volunteer teams will go door-to-door distributing 1,900 sleeping bags to the elderly and disabled in Staten Island, while assessing immediate and long term community needs.

These programs, along with AmeriCares medical and relief supplies, will help support World Cares Center’s emergency response and recovery activities.

In Breezy Point — a community decimated by floods and fire — we’ve delivered emergency aid and issued a $3,000 grant to Rockaway Point Volunteer Emergency Services to fund urgently-needed medical aid. The organization’s  triage center — currently the only medical outpost on Breezy Point — serves residents, first responders and volunteer clean-up crews. The grant will fund purchases of medicines and medical supplies to treat residents and volunteers suffering from injuries and respiratory illnesses as they help clean up the community.

In Staten Island, we’ve awarded four immediate needs “flash grants” totaling $42,000 to benefit 3,500 people who are displaced or without power. The grants enable community organizations to deliver food, clean up storm-damaged homes, and distribute necessities to victims of the storm.