3:35 pm Nov. 2, 20126
Far Rockaway is "just as bad as the folk in the 9th Ward," said Donavan Richards, an aide to City Councilman James Sanders, referring to the poor, Katrina-ravaged section of New Orleans.
Richards previously warned people in the low-lying Queens neighborhood to "Please get the hell out of Far Roc."
Far Rockaway is mostly poor and African-American.
"We have just as great a need as every other community, if not more," he said. "It's always the poorest areas that are left abandoned."
He was talking to me on a cell phone and the connection was full of static. Richards said the councilman's office is open, even though they have no electricity or phones.
"We can't get the media's attention. We're being overshadowed" by other communities, he said. "We need to make sure the resources are equitable because people lost here just as bad."
Richards was alluding in part to Breezy Point, an enclave at the western end of the Rockaway peninsula which is almost exclusively white and which was devastated by the storm, although he made a point of saying that he didn't want to take anything away from the residents there.
"There is no OEM presence, no FEMA presence," he said, talking again about Far Rockaway.
This dispatch from The Wave seems to confirm some of Richards' complaints:
The closest distribution center has been set up at Resorts World Casino in Ozone Park. That however, is inaccessible for residents who all lot their cars to water damage in the storm. Reports of an ad-hoc community center opening up at Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Beach 113 Street is the first point at which residents can pick up and drop off supplies. In Far Rockaway officials from FEMA were expected on Thursday but so far, no help has arrived. National Guard is in Rockaway, but don’t appear to be doing much more than driving around.
Richards said he thanked God for food deliveries, which he said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's office had helped to facilitate.
But he asked, "How long is this going to last? Another two weeks?"
The area gets its power from LIPA, some of whose facilities are still flooded, and which has advised its customers that the wait for power might be a matter of weeks, according to Richards.
"They can't even give me a guestimate," he said.
This afternoon, trucks full of food and as many as 20 power generators left Jackson, Mississippi, heading for Far Rockaway, said Richards, after the mayor there, Harvey Johnson, "reached out and asked how he could help."
The supplies are expected to arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon.
In the meantime, Richards said, he's advising people to get out.
"The best I can say to people right now, because there is no electricity, is to leave," he said. Citing conditions in a number of housing projects (Redfern, Ocean Bay, Beach 41st Houses, the Hammel Houses), Richards said the problem there wasn't just the lack of electricity, but of food and basic security.
"It's pitch-dark black," he said. "We are seeing a lot of push-in robberies because people are so desperate for food."
He told me, "I have single mothers calling me in frigid apartments asking me for help. And I have to tell them to leave."
Here are some images published by the Wave recently. Go here to see more.
the mayor does not give a damn he only cares about manhattan and brooklyn, I do not know how he illegally obtained a third term which has not been done for anyone else, oh thats right he bought it. Yet he's not doing he's job to help far rockaway, I am a registered voter and we are getting rid of him......I'ts time we get someone.... that cares about all of us equally!!!!!!!
Bloomberg get off Manhattan , do your job that means the 5 boroughs meaning far rockaway which is part of queens, so y are we sreviced by Lipa and not Con Edison and paying Long Island taxes. enough is enough Bloomberg do your job ...Stop spending 90% of your time in manhattan ...you trully suck as a public official .You are suppose to be our leader in times of need instead you dissmissed us like trash.....
It seems this short, little pathetic, egomaniac, who apparently suffers from napoleon syndrome is not the only one at fault. Governor Cuomo is supposed to make Bloomberg the idiot take action and help everyone and this is not happening. The only person I see all over the news is Gov. Christie, there with the people getting things done and reporting to everyone the progrss being made. We pay very high rents and LIPA utilities bill but I guess we the residents of Rockaways are not worthy of services like lights, heat and food. I'm trying to reach Pres. Obama's office as I am sure he really hasn't been told what is truly happening in Rockaways and the abuse being commited by LIPA and most of
all by short little "B d" bloomberg. One can only hope that their families suffer some of what they are forcing people, families, children,senior citizens, to withstand. If there's a hell, Bloomberg has first ticket.
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Hales Corners Lutheran Church of Hales Corners, WI, is taking up donations of food, money, clothing & blankets for Far Rockaway, NY. These items are being driven there in two large Penske Trucks & is organizing through a church in Brooklyn, that will organize the distribution along with volunteers from our church. They will be leaving Nov. 12 & 13.
The mayor only cares about the rich areas in the 5 brough's. Far rockaway doesn't
Doesnt mean anything to him. And it's his last term so it's not about the people. It's about money and power.
Reciente 3 meses me mudo para far rockaway rento un cuarto soy incapasitada, por el hurracan sandy no hay luz ni calificacion, yo me estoy quedadando en diferentes sitios y es mucho gasto el landor quiere que se pague la renta completa y en mi situacion es muy dificil mis companeros de la casa y yo le dimos una parte ahora mismo no tenemos nada y yo no quiero que me den un desposes. no se con quien hablar estoy muy depremida yo se que no es culpa de el pero mia tampoco,esto es en 175 beach 24 far rockaway my email-m.sola56@yahoo.com i realy need help. thank you.