Yesterday we completed a 3 day trip to Manasquan NJ. It was my first trip to the Jersey shore since the storm hit. From the drive to and in the neighborhood of our work site, there is little visual evidence of major damage. Upon closer inspection, the number of homes with dumpsters in the driveway and the amount of large recently cut tree stumps start to add up. It then dawns on you how far the homes are from the ocean (1/4 mile or so) and it is now 6 months since the storm hit. In that context you can begin to understand the enormity of Sandy’s damage. I’ve heard some statistics, (which would require verification) regarding the storm’s damage: 10,000 homes have been completely destroyed or have major damage and an estimated 700,000 vehicles were destroyed. Again I am not sure about these numbers but it does start to put it into perspective.
Over the past 4 months I have personally been involved in the rehab of a total of about 7 homes. Typical missions last 3 days, for our group size of 4-10 people. We can maybe restore one home about 20% of the total amount of work that needs to be completed to move back in. So in that scenario it would take our group 5 trips to restore one home (out of 10,000). Obviously, things are not that simply quantatative, but it does bring up the question 'why do we go if we are barely making a dent in the entire recovery process?' This is a question that is easily answered by noticing the expression on the survivors' faces when a volunteer group comes to help. When a volunteer group arrives the survivors are unavoidably and immediately reminded of the enormity of what has happened to them and are overwhelmingly appreciative of the effort being made by the volunteers. The physical repairs of a property are a distant second to the emotional healing the survivors need and volunteers help to provide simply by their presence. Without the verbal expression, it is quite evident that the survivors are simply grateful that someone out there, usually complete strangers, care about them and that is the reason more than anything that is most valuable about volunteering.
