Youth Organization In Brooklyn Shifts Focus To Help With Sandy Relief Effort

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - An organization in Red Hook that typically focuses on the development of teens and pre-teens has temporarily diverted its attention to help in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy.

Red Hook Initiative has been busy supplying food to the sick and elderly.

WCBS 880's Monica Miller reports

"We're doing hot meals twice a day from here. We have volunteers show up and take them to home-bound residents," Red Hook Initiative operations coordinator Sandy Brockwell told WCBS 880's Monica Miller.

The organization has also set up a temporary triage medical unit.

"Just because there's no other real resource in the neighborhood and the hospitals are full," Brockwell said. "A big problem, especially when it's getting cold at night, is it triggers a lot of asthma attacks. Right now we're on a big quest to find battery-powered nebulizers."

Brockwell said she was happy to see the amount of people offering to lend a hand.

"We've had some great volunteers that are just walking into the buildings, knocking on doors," Brockwell told Miller. "A lot of these buildings they're going into, there's no power, it's dark in the hallways."

Brockwell said the human interaction is key for residents who are unable to leave their homes.

"There are people just getting depressed as far as their circumstances go and just start to feel a little abandoned," she said.

Brockwell said Red Hook Initiative is now looking to expand its relief efforts to other devastated areas like the Rockaways and Coney Island.