by Kristina Gabalski
Lineman Mat Gartz from Spencerport repairing electrical wires after Hurricane Sandy.A small army of caring people from all over the area left the comforts of home and family in the wake of super storm Hurricane Sandy and answered the call to help relieve suffering, restore power and assist those devastated by the storm in the work of cleaning up and rebuilding their lives.
Village of Spencerport Electric Superintendent Owen McIntee says line foreman Mike Myers, lineman 1st class Mat Gartz and lineman apprentice Chris Drzewiecki traveled to Long Island to help restore power.
McIntee acted as a storm coordinator for this area, sending men as well as numerous trucks which left early on the morning of October 31 and returned late on the evening of November 9.
Spencerport and the Village of Churchville (which sent two linemen) are both members of the Municipal Electric Utilities Association (MEUA) which provided aid to the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) following the storm.
McIntee says the villages of Arcade, Groton and Marathon also teamed up with Churchville and Spencerport to send linemen who worked 16-hour days during the disaster to restore residential power, mainly in the areas of Smithtown and Centereach.
“While the conditions were very hazardous for these linemen, they all exercised extreme caution, worked very safely and followed all of their safety procedures as they removed trees, replaced broken utility poles and reinstalled downed power lines,” McIntee says.
Two linemen from Churchville helped restore electricity on Long Island.“It can be a slow process turning the lights back on,” he continues, “and it was further complicated when the nor’easter storm rolled through Long Island on November 7, dumping six inches of heavy snow and creating blizzard-type conditions. As a lineman or a person in a supervisory role, our biggest goal is not only restoring power, but to ensure that our employees work safely and return home safely to their families.”
McIntee notes local crews traveled to Long Island on the heels of dealing with a two day storm here.
“I’m so proud of these guys,” he says, “they did an awesome job and I am so proud of them. I told them you will remember (the experience) forever. They are talented men and they made a difference.”
While on Long Island, the Spencerport crew was given the task of repairing downed power lines and getting power back to Suffolk County Community College and the surrounding area. The crew was able to restore power by Monday, November 5.
“In doing so, they re-energized our Village of Spencerport Code Enforcement Officer Kevin Kelly’s daughter’s home, who lives adjacent to the college. With one million people living on Long Island and 900,000 without power along with upwards of 14,000 line crews and tree crews providing mutual aid, who would have ever thought that our own Spencerport Electric Crew (would) restore power to one of our own employee’s family member’s homes?”
McIntee adds that he and electric superintendents from Bergen, Churchville and Fairport established a plan together, so that all could share the remaining resources and equipment in order to meet their own local electric customers’ requests and keep the lights on.
“It was business as usual,” McIntee says of local electric service while crews were downstate, “folks never knew.”
Spencerport Mayor Joyce Lobene commends the Spencerport crew members who made the trip. “Mike and Mat both have young families and I am proud of them and their families for being so giving,” she says.
Shown with Mayor Nancy Steedman, Deputy Major Don Suter and DPW Superintendent Paul Robinson are Village Electric employees Eric Heeg and Ken Yoffredo. Both men went to the NYC area with equipment to help restore power outages from Hurricane Sandy.Village of Churchville DPW Superintendent Paul Robinson says Lineman 1st class Eric Heeg and Lineman 1st class Ken Yoffredo worked in the area of Bethpage State Park on Long Island.
He says a “bird dog” person from the Long Island Power Authority helped to direct the crew. “A ‘bird dog’ knows the area,” Robinson explains. “He arranges for things like meals. It worked out well.”
Like McIntee, Robinson points out the priority placed on safety for the crews. He says the two linemen from Churchville returned home safely on November 9.
He says Churchville sent a digger truck and a chase truck to assist with power restoration.
He, too, notes the mutual aid provided by the Village of Bergen while linemen for Spencerport and Churchville were downstate.
“Even though Bergen didn’t go, they helped to keep things working here. Spencerport needed to use Bergen. It works like mutual aid for fire departments,” Robinson says.
Rick Stacy of Bergen traveled to New York City on New York Naval Militia call-up helping with relief efforts.
He assisted in a number of ways including distributing food and water, helping with clean-up on storm ravaged Staten Island and checking on residents (many elderly) in a high-rise building. His unit also helped to guard Fire Island with boats to prevent nighttime looting.
“It was my first trip to New York City,” Stacy says. “Our mission changed (everyday). We didn’t know what we would be doing until we woke up – we were part of a quick response force.”
At the Lexington Armory in Manhattan, Stacy helped with food and water distribution. On Staten Island the second storm – the nor’easter – hit with rain that turned to snow.
His crew followed sanitation trucks, picking up garbage.
“There was five to six feet of water in the houses,” Stacy says and people were being evacuated again due to the nor’easter. “We were soaking wet to the bone,” he says, “but it was a very satisfying day.”
Another day, Stacy was at the Jacob Javitz Center to break down pallets of cleaning supplies donated by Home Depot.
“We had to divide the supplies into buckets and load them back onto tractor trailers for distribution,” he says.
Rockaway was hit especially hard, Stacy notes, and it took his crew two hours to get there in what normally would be a 15 to 20 minute ride.
“I noticed cars all over the place,” Stacy says, “…. up-rooted trees and sand.”
He and his crew were taken to a parking lot full of ambulances from all over the country. He rode with an EMT crew to check on people who did not evacuate a 25-story building that was still without power.
“Many elderly residents had been climbing stairs with water – one step at a time,” he says.
Jeff Weber of Holley traveled to Tom’s River, New Jersey with Samaritan’s Purse International Relief from Tuesday, November 6 through Tuesday, November 13.
He worked with volunteers who helped homeowners by installing tarp to cover wind-damaged roofs, removing unsalvageable belongings and cleaning out debris and muck from flooded homes. Ruined flooring was ripped up and damaged sheetrock stripped from walls. The exposed studs were then sprayed with a solution that kills mold.
All work is being done at no cost to homeowners.
Weber says he helped unload three tractor trailers of donations of food and clothing and mucked out houses.
A Bible, with volunteer signatures, was given to each household.
The Weber family says two-thousand volunteers are on the waiting list to help in New Jersey and New York City through Samaritan’s Purse.
Just this past summer, the family visited Seaside Park in New Jersey located across the bridge from Tom’s River.
“The boardwalk and amusement park we visited are completely gone,” family members say. “Homeowners have to be bussed over to their properties with police escorts to spend two-to-three hours gathering salvageable possessions. It will take three-to-five years for things to get back to ‘normal.’ It has only been 13 months since they recovered from Hurricane Irene.”
Terry Werth helped out locally at a Red Cross shelter set up in Brockport during the time the impact of Hurricane Sandy was felt here. She then traveled to New York City for the Red Cross to help with disaster relief from November 2 through 12.
“Disaster relief is an odd mix,” she explains. “The adrenalin rush of the unknown, the anxiety about spontaneous challenges and new experiences, the life-changing opportunity to be of service to people whose lives have been brutally and unfairly up-ended, the chance to meet thousands of compassionate human beings doing their best to provide basic human needs, comfort and hope.”
Werth says she and her roommate, Kristine Uribe of Ithaca, drove and navigated a 16 foot box truck to bring blankets, heater meals, clean-up kits, water, gloves, batteries, flashlights and other necessities to the affected areas.
“Over our twelve days together, we made many trips with our truck, mostly to Long Island,” Werth explains, “Long Beach, Lido Beach, Nickerson Beach, Rockaway and Far Rockaway where the damage was devastating. Most of the homes cannot be lived in, businesses are boarded up and ruined. We passed police-monitored gas lines that were hours long.”
She vividly describes what people in the hardest hit areas are facing in the wake of the powerful storm.
“Imagine that tomorrow your house is in water five feet deep. Everything the water has touched is ruined and must be thrown out. In front of your house sits a mountain of garbage: carpeting and padding, wall board, bedding, furniture, appliances, clothing, dishes, kitchenware, pictures, knick-knacks. Mixed in is the dark muck of sewage, debris and sand, piled more than several feet high on many streets. Your car has floated blocks away and won’t run when you find it washed up on top of two other cars. Where do you start?”
“Our bulk distribution staging area was outside in the parking lot of Aqueduct Racetrack and Casino in South Ozone Park,” she continues. We helped unload box trucks, remove wooden pallets and plastic out of returning trucks and went out on deliveries, all while trying to keep warm.”
Bulk distribution was later moved to a huge indoor warehouse in Jersey City, New Jersey and Werth’s team was housed in a hotel in Times Square.
“We worked alongside state and local police,” Werth says, “National Guard and firefighters. Volunteers came from around the world to help. We met wonderful Red Cross volunteers from just about every state, Canada and Mexico and felt an instant kinship with each one.”
Werth says it was an emotional experience – at times she would laugh until she cried and other times just cry.
“The times I hated the most were when I was handing out our last blanket or tarp or cleaning kit and there were dozens of outstretched arms wanting that last item. I couldn’t process how to decide who to give it to, so I just closed my eyes and somebody grabbed it,” she says. “It is a life-changing experience for everyone involved. I kept thinking of one of my favorite quotes: We are all just walking each other home. It is going to be a long, sad part of that walk for too many.”
Mark Evans, who owns the Underground Paint Shop on Manitou Road, closed down his business after collecting needed items and cash donations for storm victims and personally traveled to Staten Island with helpers Jason Sobb, Shane O’Leary and Tom O’Leary Monday, November 12 to Thursday, November 15.
Mark’s wife, Heather, coordinated their efforts from here at home.
She says Mark got the idea the weekend after the storm and decided to take a pick-up truck load of supplies to New York City.
The couple started out by asking close friends and family for donations, but after going on Facebook, the project snowballed. Exposure on Facebook and stories on local television stations brought in many donations from people Mark and Heather didn’t even know as well as old friends and people they hadn’t seen in years.
“People from high school – a school in Webster made a donation, the Walker Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary in Hilton” – are just a few of the many who came forward to help, Heather says. Mark ended up needing his 24-ft. car trailer to accommodate all the supplies.
In addition, the Evans’ purchased items including a generator and cleaning supplies like shovels and brooms. “It’s amazing how big it got,” Heather says.
She researched and contacted people in the New York City area via email and Facebook to see where the help was needed most.
They decided to focus on Staten Island, “Which ended up being a perfect choice,” Heather says, “because there was more need.”
Mark’s crew was also able to work very efficiently and avoid red tape by working independently of an established organization, she adds.
It was difficult just driving around the city, Heather says. The streets are narrow and storm-wrecked cars were everywhere. “The storm surge hit at high tide; it was like a tidal wave,” she says. “Navigating with the truck and trailer was a task.”
Mark and his crew spent Monday afternoon and Tuesday on Staten Island and then answered a call for help in Far Rockaway Wednesday morning for a 24-year old woman with a two-year old daughter whose husband is in the Marines. Following that job, the crew returned to Staten Island Wednesday af-ternoon and were able to come to the aid of a woman whose entire first floor needed to be gutted.
Heather says she set up an Underground Paint Shop page on Facebook which has numerous photos of the trip. The page was also a way for people who made donations to follow the progress of Mark’s crew while they were in New York City.
