Occupy Sandy Relief: Rockaway devastation and recovery (video)

Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Sandy Relief projects are still continuing in New York. Rockaway residents reflect, recover and rebuild the community after Hurricane Sandy brings destruction and chaos to the beachfront neighborhood. 

Surveying the surrounding devastation in Rockaway, one resident opens the *video with, "The weather reports usually exaggerate. Just in case something catastrophic happens, just to come out and say, hey, you know, we warned you. But this time they were right. They were dead on. If not, it was actually worse than they said."

Other residents share the experience of windows popping out under the stress of the water, living in the dark, with no electricity, no water, no gas. We see residents in the area trying to make repairs, clean up the mess and get back to normal, but it is difficult under the circumstances.

Another resident reflects on his experience and says, "I don't want to die with 85 year old people, trying to make them swim, and deal with them drowning and so on. It just makes you appreciate life, even the wind on my face, which is freezing right now, feels nice."

A lady speaks of her neighbor, "You think of heroes as these big cops and firemen, and believe me they are too, and they always are. But here's someone, who just comes out of the blue, she calls me up when I'm being evacuated and says "What can I do." The day before we had to evacuate she called me to say let me help you to get the stuff off the terrace. She was going from terrace to terrace." 

We are introduced to rescue workers and Occupy Sandy Relief members, bringing food and water to residents who are unable to get out and about. We watch a community barbeque on the go.

One resident says, "You see the people come together more, you see everyone going out of their way to do the right thing. It's interesting, because sometimes you ask yourself, why can't it be done all the time like that."

Another says, "You know, it don't make no sense, that it takes death or a tragedy like this for people to come together and help. You know, and that's the main time you see people coming together to help each other, when its a death or funeral, you know, or tragedy like this." 

* Regrettably, blogger does not bring up the correct YouTube video - you can watch the video here