This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated October 28, 2022
Ten years ago, at the end of October, Superstorm Sandy impacted New York City. Eight years before the pandemic shut down the city, Sandy caused New Yorkers to work remotely, schools to be closed for an extended period, and the cancellation of large events. It also brought out the best in people and, sometimes, the worst in people.
In addition to an estimated $19 billion in economic losses, Sandy killed 44 city residents. Staten Island, where entire blocks of some neighborhoods were destroyed, accounted for 21 of those fatalities.
Glenda Moore was trying to flee her Staten Island community with her two young sons, ages 2 and 4, as the storm hit, while her husband, who worked for the Sanitation Department, was called in to work. Reports stated that when her vehicle was swept into a watery ditch, she hurriedly grabbed her boys and began knocking on doors.
Moore, an African American woman, said that one man came to his door but would not let them in. After attempting to then get in through a back door by breaking a window, her sons would then be swept away by the rushing water. Their bodies would be found days later, several blocks away. The man who owned the house claimed that a man was trying to break into his home to rob him. When Moore returned to the scene with Police the following day, as a search was underway for her children, she screamed at the neighbor who would shut her and her boys out the night before.
In Brooklyn, many coastal communities were decimated. Two NYCHA Community centers in Coney Island that had suffered extensive damage were still shuttered years after the storm had struck.
In the days following the storm, events around the city would be canceled or rescheduled. The first ever regular season game for the Nets in Brooklyn was postponed. New York’s Village Halloween Parade was cancelled, as was the New York City Marathon.
Political leaders worked together to help those in need. New York’s Democratic governor coordinated assistance with New Jersey’s Republican governor. In a prelude of how divisive politics would become, Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey at the time, was harshly criticized by many Conservatives for putting his arm around President Obama during his visit to the Garden State, and for praising the response from Obama.
Here in Southern Brooklyn, a relief kitchen quickly popped up and would feed thousands of people impacted by the storm. Though the founders of that impromptu effort did not know it at the time, the community collective they began in the immediate aftermath of the storm would become Bay Ridge Cares, which is still serving the community ten years later.
As someone who was an annual runner of the New York City Marathon, I decided to turn the first Sunday in November, which had been the date for the big race, into an opportunity to raise money for recovery efforts. Other local marathoners joined the fundraiser and we planned our own marathon.
In coordination with a supplies drive from The Owl’s Head Bar, while some of those supplies were loaded into a caravan of vehicles, the rest were strapped to the backs of those of us running, and we set out from Bay Ridge, running south along the Brooklyn coastline to the Rockaways and ending in Broad Channel Queens, a community that had been hit hard.
During the planning and preparation for the fundraising run, I could not find a charity that would use our donation specifically to help those affected here in Brooklyn. I decided to send a message to Andrew Gounardes, who I had only known through following him on Facebook after he had declared he would run for State Senate. He immediately responded, despite being in the closing days of a campaign, which he had paused to focus on relief efforts, such as the pop-up kitchen. Thanks to him, the money we raised went to the Borough President’s relief fund and helped people affected by Sandy here in Brooklyn.
Difficult times do not make people who they are. They reveal who they are. Ten years ago, Sandy did just that.
