Dozens Come Out In Rain To Help Sandy Victims On Staten Island
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Dozens of volunteers used this rainy day to help Sandy victims restore their homes on Staten Island.
As Andrea pounded wind and rain on a block in Oakwood Beach, dozens of volunteers were inside a home on Adelaide Avenue gutted by Sandy.
"We're working on doing the primer for the house. I got assigned the corners, cause I can reach up high," said Deloitte technology risk consultant A.J. Malvisi.
He is giving his time so the homeowner can attend her son's graduation.
"You hear so much about the destruction of Sandy. So, I really wanted to get in here and see it and help out, do the best i can," he told WCBS 880 reporter Monica Miller.
Volunteer Kirsten Connor, executive director of the CityKids Foundation, said it's hard to believe how much work still needs to be done seven months after the storm.
"It's too long and it's rebuilding when we should be able to say 'rebuilt,'" she said.
With a rollbrush in hand, she said she's been organizing student volunteers throughout the five boroughs to help get residents back in their homes, like the one in Oakwood Beach.
"It's bare. Smells you've never smelled before. Starkness," she said.
Rep. Michael Grimm said some areas are still vulnerable.
"Why? Because our beaches have eroded over the years and in superstorm Sandy... So we have no barriers at all right now," Grimm told Miller. "I think that, you know, the idea of another storm coming... is a scary, scary thought."
Today's event was part of the work being done by the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation and part of Deloitte's IMPACT Day.
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