Sandy has affected millions of lives in NY and NJ. It also wreaked havoc in the Caribbean before making it's way up north. It truly was no joke.
In my life I've seen so much coverage of hurricanes in the news, never did I think I would live in an area that would be affected by one. I was one of the lucky folks - I didn't lose power and my wonderful neighborhood didn't suffer much more than a bunch of downed trees (my sympathies go out to people who woke up the next morning to find their cars smashed). I didn't want to be one of those people that said "oh, this is terrible" and end up doing nothing. The people affected were basically my neighbors!
I started scouring the webs for volunteer opportunities and quickly got discourages. The Red Cross only accepts donations, NY Cares requires an orientation before any volunteer products. I reached out to a number of orgs and no one got back to me. Then I came across Occupy Sandy. The same people who brought OWS are now putting their time and money towards organizing volunteers and donations directly towards affected areas. Their website has great info on how to help and where to go. I went to the Rockaways, a devastated area that seems under-reported in the news, and organized donations at a local church. You can also sign up to help people clean out their flood-damaged homes. Locals told me the most help they have been getting Is from guerrilla volunteers, not so much FEMA or the Red Cross. It's very inspiring to see folks coming together to help despite the tragedy.
Other ways to help: no donation is too small! You can send money to the Red Cross or preferably a local organization (who seem to be making more of an impact). Before I heard about Occupy Sandy, I stumbled across The Legacy Center while checking out the damages in Coney Island. I literally walked up to these good people and they let me help out with distributing goods to affected families.
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