New York on Thursday started handing out one million meals to poor and elderly people struggling in the dark fallout of superstorm Sandy.
National Guard troops and New York police will also go into the city’s high rise apartment blocks to knock on doors and see who needs help, mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
The Red Cross said it had deployed 12 mobile kitchens capable of preparing 200,000 meals a day and the government is also setting up a giant operation.
“I am going to join them now in bringing one million meals to New York, one million meals believe it or not,” New York state governor Andrew Cuomo told a press conference.
Though New York is slowly getting moving again after the storm hit Monday, the devastation is still widely felt. Many private groups and churches have started handing out aid in the worst affected areas of Manhattan and other boroughs.
Judith Vorreuter’s ground floor apartment in the East village was flooded by the storm which turned the East River into a rampaging torrent. The 72-year-old had to be rescued by neighbors.
Her home is now filled with mud. “I lost all my winter clothes which were under the bed, and the books and records. All the food got spoiled.”
She is now staying with a friend who has no electricity. “We have problems to get hot food. Everything is closed.” Vorreuter like many others has been living off bananas, apples and chocolate since Monday.
But other elderly citizens are not so lucky and one church group has set up a soup kitchen in Tompkins Square, in the heart of the East Village.
Glenn Ferro, a volunteer for the Life Ministries group, said that normally the kitchen is set up every Tuesday in the district.
“Because of the hurricane, there’s no power, nobody can cook. So we came yesterday and today. We have 10 gallons of soup and also fruit juice and chocolate. We have clothes, clean new socks. We just stay until everything is gone.”
Some of their customers are regulars, but the storm has brought a new wave of people in need. The unemployed, the elderly, and illegal migrants have all become victims.
The East Village has some of the trendiest restaurants and bars in Manhattan but also has a hard core of poverty and the storm has cut it off even more from the rest of New York.
A sub-station which exploded on Monday night is just four blocks away and a district as big as many American cities is now without power.
There is some solidarity however.
Further up 10th Street, someone has put a generator on the street with an extension cord so that people can charge mobile phones and laptops. “No more than 30 minutes each,” says a sign with the generator.
Some inhabitants have their pride despite Sandy’s ravages however. “I live on the fifth floor in Eighth Street,” said Anastasia Lacdo, 86, and originally from Ukraine, who walks with a stick.
“I have no light, nor hot water. But I don’t need help. I use the stairs, I do the shopping myself.”
One million free meals for New York storm victims
