Port Hadlock WCC: New York, New York

Our View of Manhattan from our ship

Shortly before Superstorm Sandy made landfall Owen informed us that we are on the list to be shipped over to assist in disaster response. The Next day we received confirmation that we would be leaving on October 31st for a long truck ride east. We were up early, had the truck packed and on our way to Ellensburg to have a meeting with Roland and all the other crews going to New York. Adrenaline was high, and we were stoked to be given such a great opportunity to help in the recovery.

The WCC caravan

We made the 3000 mile trip in 5 days, with stops in Missoula MT, Wall SD, Madison WI, Sharon PA and finally New York. We didn't get our assignment until we reached Madison, and our final confirmation of the assignment came as we all met a final time in New Jersey. We began seeing signs of the disaster once we neared New Jersey. We filled up on gas right before we crossed into New Jersey, as soon as we crossed the border there were signs that the gas stations had no gas.

No Gas Signs

After meeting in New Jersey and getting our assignment to Queens College we drove into the city. There were many areas that were blacked out. While owen was driving I was the navigator. Trying to make our way through the city was insanely stressful, but, we did finally make it to Queens College. Our initial and primary task was shelter operations. It was considered a life sustaining task, and therefore the most important. We ended up running a shelter for 3 weeks. Our crew was responsible for the family and pet shelter operations between the hours of 8am-4pm. After we got of work we would hang around the shelter with the other AmeriCorps groups that were there or head to one of the restaurants for dinner (either this deli or pizza place both were really good!). When we finally got our first day off (14 days or so after leaving) we went to Manhattan and explored the city. I went to the American Museum of Natural History, some of the guys went and walked around the city. It was a great day off! 7 days later we got another day off and went into the city again. We closed the shelter and finally managed to get some real field work in. But, the real treat was moving onto a navy vessel of some kind to live in for the next week. The food was awesome, the bunks tiny, but definitely worth it. Our field work consisted of mold mitigation. After 6 days of that we were called home, and our 3000 mile journey home began.