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HURRICAINE SANDY ANNIVERSARY

Rebuilding the Ark

Many community organizations rose heroically to the work of rebuilding lives in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. One of theseis the Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island (JCC-CGI), which serves thousands of people a year in a wide range of

capacities, and whose reach of services extends far beyond Brooklyn. Like much of Coney Island, the main offi ces of the JCC were devastated, along with all their contents with damage estimated at

$1.5 million and with nothing salvageable except the exterior walls. Except JCC-CGI could not suspend its services to seniors, Holocaust survivors, at-risk youth, and others who depend on them on a

daily basis. So... they kept on, without missing a day.On April 28, 2014, one day short of 18 months after Superstorm Sandy hit , JCC-GCI staff returned to offi ces. In place of devasta-

tion was a brand-new facility. In advance of Hurricanes Sandy second anniversary, Hamodia interviewed Rabbi Moshe Wiener,executive director of JCC-CGI, to hear his recollections of that traumatic chapter.

BY AHUVA APPELBAUM

How would a snapshot of the JCC look the day before Sandy?The day before the hurricane we were at full functionality as we

always had been; nothing was happening weather-wise that would haveimpacted on that. We were at that point serving up to 2,500 individuals aday in a wide array of services ve senior centers, one of them an Inno-vative Senior Center, vocational services, educational services, technicalassistance services to nonprots throughout the city, our adult literacyservices, our home care services, afterschool services, services for home-bound elderly.

And then?Destruction was total. The water level in our main offi ces was six feet

high. Everything below that was totally destroyed. Hydraulic pressurepushed up the foundation of the building and caused the sewer pipes tobreak. The full-size refrigerators and freezers in one of our senior centers

were tossed around like toys ...Thousands and thousands and thousands of pages of records docu-

menting all the services we provide were destroyed. The computer sys-tem, the telephone system, all our equipment, all our furniture every-thing.

There was nothing left of our offi ces except the external walls, andinside nothing but sand. Even the sand had to be excavated to dig up thesewer pipes under the building!

The two upper oors of the building, where the senior center is locat-ed, were unable to be reached. There was no elevator. The stairs had col-lapsed...

Even besides that, the whole infrastructure of the building had beendestroyed. The electricity had been destroyed. Plumbing was destroyed.The heat, the air conditioning, telephone lines.

It took until the middle of March (2014) to restore the basic infra-

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structure of the building so that the upper oorswere able to be reopened. Therefore it wasntuntil mid-March that the senior center in thebuilding, our Coney Island Seaside InnovativeSenior Center, was nally able to be reopenedas an innovative senior center (a particular cat-egory of senior center with enhanced services,of which there are only 10 in all of New YorkCity) for the rst time since the storm.

On West 24 th Street, two blocks away, isanother one of our senior centers that was alsoon ground level. It was also devastated. Thedifference was that the structure of the build-ing was not impacted only the content wasdestroyed. The water level was only 4 feethigh, not six feet high.

For how long were services disrupted?Its very important to distinguish between

the disruption of these two of our senior cent-ers and the disruption of our overall activities. We were providing full care to over 700 peoplea day all over the borough of Brooklyn. Thatwas all coordinated out of this office. It was allrun through the computer system and the tel-ephone system of the staff that works in thatoffice. We provided, last year, more than 70,000trips to 4,000 seniors in the borough of Brook-lyn. And all of that is coordinated out of thisoffice. Two senior centers were impacted ... butthe impact is much greater: All 17 CUNY cam-puses and an additional 30 colleges, their workexperience requirements are all coordinatedout of this office as well. So were our adult lit-eracy programs that take place in 30 differentlocations. None of that could function withoutthe staff, the computer system, the telephone

system and all the infrastructure of the organi-zation.

Whats amazing, phenomenal, extraordinaryto the greatest degree is that within days, all ofour programs and services except those twosenior centers were fully functional.

How did that happen?It happened through a combination of the

amazing resiliency and dedication of our staff,who worked around the clock, and the imple-mentation of advanced technology. We fortu-nately had appropriate backups of our entirecomputer system. Besides the offsite backups,our comptroller met me in the office the daybefore the hurricane and we literally with ourhands carried out our supplemental backupcomputer. We set up remote desktops. Any-one who had an internet connection was giveninstructions to connect to a remote desktopcomputer system, and all the functionality theyhad at their desk in their offices was available tothem.

How long did that take?It was within a few days. At the same time,

a cloud-based telephone system was installed. We had the same extensions, the same voice-mail systems to a caller from the outside, itwas almost invisible.

What was the impact on individuals?The population that was immediately

impacted was our home-care clients. Many ofthem who were in the hurricane zone had noelectricity, no telephone, no elevators. It was aprocess of reestablishing contacts and restor-

ing services. ... The day after the hurricane, theDepartment of the Aging, that deals with CityMeals on Wheels, was there. We made arrange-ments with caterers, and in the streets, or insenior citizens housing developments thatgave us space, we immediately began distribut-ing food.

Any of the seniors who attended our seniorcenters who were depending on us for theirdaily meals were able to get food.

The Department of the Aging reached outto us and said that we should spend whateverwas necessary to get our senior centers up andrunning, and whatever FEMA will eventuallyreimburse us, they would cover the difference.

And thats just what we did. Our HaberHouse senior center, the one on West 24thStreet, within a few weeks was fully operation-al again. For several days we had had cleaningcrews coming in around the clock, removing allthe destroyed furniture and equipment, sani-tizing the place and replacing kitchen equip-ment and table and chairs so that we couldbegin serving food again.

How did the staff remain so motivated inthe face of such a crisis?

The staff are amazingly dedicated peoplewho care to their depths about the clients theyserve. Their response was extraordinary. Eve-ryone gave all the time and effort they possiblycould for 18 months, functioning in temporary,makeshift, cramped, locations until our officescould be rebuilt. It wasnt just a few days ofhardship.

At this point, its hard for people to remem-

Hamodia spoke to a few of the caseworkers on the front lines before,during, and after Superstorm Sandy Esther, Aliza, and Hudi aboutindividuals in the community who were severely affected by the disasterand its aftermath. From their 1000+ caseload, they shared some of theirreections.

Esther: The cases we want to discuss are residents of Sea Gate. Aliza : One client lived a block from the ocean. Shes living in her

house now, baruch Hashem . She gave me a little tour of her house. Wesaw all the cracks in the walls perhaps from the settling, or the mold,or whatever caused it.

Its ongoing; its not something that happened two years ago and itsover. Its still happening for everybody who encountered it, and especial-ly for the Holocaust survivors. It was very traumatizing.

This specic client had told me that to her it was even worse than theHolocaust. [In a concentration camp] she knew that every morning shehad to wake up for roll call and follow the routine, and so on. Here, it wasso unexpected. They had to just pick up and leave their home, the sameway that she had to in her youth.

So her childhood trauma has resurfaced. It really threw her whole lifeoff track the same way it had been thrown off then.

Esther : Lets not forget youre talking about people who are in their80s and 90s.

Aliza : Shes living alone now; she no longer has any family in herhome. We send cleaning help to her house once or twice a week, which is

very helpful for her, just one less thing for her to worry about. Right afterthe storm we helped her with a little bit of xing up. In general, she turnsto us if theres anything that she needs, and were right down the block, soits very convenient for her,

Esther : We have a couple in Sea Gate who also live a block from the

water. They did not want to leave. They were among the last people toleave Sea Gate. All his sefarim were destroyed. Everything was destroyed.Everything. They were on the rst oor, and we helped them with theirfurniture, to get their house back ... it was months before they came back.This man was on dialysis. We provided them with transportation to getto dialysis, but he was uprooted as well.

If you had to pick one memorable situation that encapsulates Hur-ricane Sandy for you, what would it be?

Hudi: I remember looking at a huge stack of applications for assis-tance, and when you go through each story, each one is heartbreaking.Youre reading from each person, My washing machine was destroyed,my sewing machine, my vacuum cleaner, my basement ooring. ...You didnt know what to pick to help them with, because we dont haveunlimited funds. There was just a huge stack of les that every day wewould scan through, and scan through, and scan through and the nextday there would be more. Sitting in that chair in the corner, freezing cold,at a folding table, with piles and piles of help folders in front of me. I thinkthat would be the memory [that typies Sandy for me].

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ber the devastation, especially if they dontlive in an area that was affected.

Those living in Coney Island were all livingin apartment buildings developments sothey were without electricity, heat, hot water.Thats bad enough. But their actual apartmentsand furniture were not affected. People whowere living in Sea Gate, on the other hand, weretotally destroyed and devastated.

One of our temporary sites was a trailerthat we established for the Sea Gate communi-ty. This was funded by a grant from the RobinHood Foundation and subsequently supportedby the Superstorm Sandy block grant. Withina week or two we had several donated servicesfunctioning there. There were two legal aidorganizations that made their attorneys avail-able for emergency assistance. There werehealth professionals who were based in thereuntil this past October, that were working withthe local community to help address the traumaand emotional crises that people were experi-encing.

People lost their homes, their possessions;they lost all their memories of decades, of theirwhole life everything of sentimental valuefor them. So there was depression, there wasdespair, and many people were having tremen-dous difficulty coping.

Lets say that someone is 85 or 90 and aHolocaust survivor, and that person loseseverything.

To the credit of the [Holocaust] Claims Con-ference, they made special funds available foremergency assistance specically for Holo-caust survivors. And they also made an alliancebetween us and the German consulate, whichprovided some funds, and also some privatesector support from two German-based orga-nizations that enabled us to address the needsof the Holocaust survivors who were directlyimpacted by the hurricane.

In any case where nancial assistance isnecessary besides the fact that our casework-

ers, our social workers are involved in orderto responsibly approve allocation of funds foremergencies for families, it requires my approv-al and also of our board, a special committeethat reviews and approves these requests. Sothere were several of layers of review for thosetypes of relief responses.

How is the Greater Coney Island communitydoing overall, two years on?

Two years later there are still business-es that have been impacted. There are many,many homeowners who remain impacted. Andunfortunately the Build It Back program untilnow has not been functional.

To the great credit of the new city councilmember representing the Coney Island area,Mark Treyger who has taken leadership inSuperstorm Sandy response he urged thecouncil speaker to create a special committeein the city council for Superstorm Sandy reliefefforts, and was appointed chair of that. He waselected in November and took office in January,and convened the rst-ever community basedmeeting of the City Council to hold a specialhearing about the problems in the NYCHAdevelopments in Coney Island, where the heat,the hot water, the basic functionalities wereeither not restored on a timely basis or werestill problematic.

How do people live for two years withoutbasic housing facilities?

Many people had to relocate. There werepeople that couldnt, and there temporarygenerators, temporary heaters were installed.There were houses that were never rebuilt,there were houses where people were not reim-bursed for money they borrowed in order to dothe rebuilding.

Some say that Superstorm Sandy was aconuence of forces that may not cometogether again, so no offshore barriers orother structural protection is needed. Do

you agree? Absolutely not. The danger, especially to

the Sea Gate-Coney Island area, is immense.In 19911992 there was a Noreaster that didtremendous damage. Afterward, thanks toCongressman Jerrold Nadler and other electedofficials, the Army Corps of Engineers built thenecessary jetties and seawalls that protectedthis community from any kind of devastatingooding for all these years. But that protectionwas destroyed during Sandy.

It requires a tremendous amount of engi-neering expertise to develop a system thatscomprehensive and should not allow one areato be damaged while protecting a second area.Before Sandy, plans had been made and fundsallocated to install additional jetties and sea-walls protecting Coney Island and Sea Gate.Unfortunately, there were bureaucratic delays.If they had been implemented, then a lot of thisdestruction would not have happened.

If there would be another storm now, thedamage would be many, many times greaterthan it was [during Sandy], because now theresabsolutely no protection.

How would you sum up the experience ofthe JCC of Greater Coney Island since Sandyin 2012?

With a quick anecdote: A few weeks afterthe storm, there was a meeting of high-levelofficials representing city agencies who wereinvolved in community response and I, repre-senting an organization in a community thatwas affected, was invited. As I walked into themeeting, I was introduced as Rabbi Wienerfrom the Jewish Community Council in Great-er Coney Island that was destroyed.

Immediately I responded that our officeswere destroyed, but the Jewish CommunityCouncil of Greater Coney Island was fully oper-ational and functional. And that was reality.The organization, its mission, its dedication, itsvibrancy were strengthened as a result of theexperience. n

Sandy destroyed all but the outer shell of the JCCGCIs main ofces. Its brand new facility opened in April 2014, built on the same site.

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