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Occupy Sandy: The Relief That Showed Up When No One Else Did

One Year Later, Still Cleaning Up

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Where Was Fema? Red Cross?

On October 22 2012 Hurricane Sandy pounded parts of New York City, leaving millions without power, and hundreds of thousands homeless.

Where Was Fema? The Red Cross? People were desperate. They were promised supplies and resources that never showed up.

But Occupy Sandy showed up. I personally went by the Sunset Park headquarters in Brooklyn to drop off supplies when I got in to NYC, weeks after the storm. I was so taken by what I saw I went back the next day to volunteer. A group if us drove to the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn, organized supplies of food and delivered them to people in high rise tenements that had been without electricity for weeks.

I know for a fact this organization did a tremendous job responding to the community when no one else did.

This is the letter we included in each care package:

Dear Friend,

Here's the care package we put together to support you and your community during this difficult time. We hope it's useful. We also want to say that we're shocked by what your community is facing. Nobody should be stuck in this situation. We want you to know that there are a lot of people outside doing everything we can to make it better. Many of us are putting pressure on the city and the federal government, The Red CRoss, Con Ed, FEMA, and other organizations to address their lack of response. In the meantime, hang in there and we hope to see you outside soon. We hope that we can use what we've learned from this experience to organize our buildings and neighborhoods to make sure such things never happen again.

With Love From,
The People

Never underestimate the power of people working together for each other, with each other. They remain to this day, one year later, dedicated to finishing the job of cleaning and rebuilding in the areas that still need help.

--Bibi Farber

Occupy Sandy Website: http://occupysandy.net/

I recorded an original song, called "Power Back On" and am sending all proceeds to Occupy Sandy. Download Power Back On: www.cdbaby.com/cd/bibifarber5