Thread: The Forgotten Borough (Hurricane Sandy Recovery in Staten Island)

The Forgotten Borough | American-Rattlesnake

Living in this city your entire life gives one the opportunity to experience things you would not normally encounter in any other part of the country. Many of these experiences are deeply unpleasant and disturbing, including periodic attempts, with varying degrees of success, by terrorists to blow up large sections of it, along with its inhabitants. Putting aside the preternatural feeling that I’m living in a very bad Michael Bay film-as if there is any other kind-there aren’t many things that occur to or in New York that shake me out of the existential torpor which stems from spending most days trying to avoid 8 million people.
That said, if you had told me a decade ago that there would be another nationwide, star-studded telethon created with the intention of raising millions of dollars for relief and recovery efforts ostensibly helping the victims of an epic disaster in New York City, I probably would have scoffed. Granted, New York has seen its share of momentous climatic events, including nor’easters, earthquakes, and even tornadoes. Yet not many people expected a natural disaster that would kill over forty people in this city, nearly half of whom came from Staten Island.
The idea that there would be scenes of devastation less than two miles from my home which echoed images from catastrophic tsunamis across the globe is something that I still have trouble reconciling with my conception of New York City. The dislocation experienced by thousands of New Yorkers was something that hadn’t occurred since September 11th, and which will probably persist well into the next decade.
Living within the borough that has born perhaps the biggest brunt of Hurricane Sandy was disconcerting, but not because of any hardship I had experienced personally. Thankfully, except for some damage too miniscule to speak of I came out of the storm relatively unscathed. I wish I could say the same of my friends, some of whose lives were completely upended, an experience that included being driven from the places into which they had invested blood, sweat and tears for decades in order to make a home for their families...

The American did not for get you at all as my friend from Pa told me . that if any thing happen to the other country
sure in hell they would get the help right a way it true . but the American get kick In the ass all the time
but you will get help . god Bless you all stand you ground .
South Bx

Remember the 67 Republicans in House of Representatives who turned their backs on Hurricane Sandy victims

The worst of the phonies come from Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, who came running for money in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We bailed them out then, but they tell us to drop dead.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Friday, January 4, 2013, 11:45 PM
Updated: Saturday, January 5, 2013, 6:00 AM



Harry Hamburg/AP;Ron Antonelli/New York Daily News;Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Rogelio V. Solis/AP

(Clockwise from top left) Reps. Louie Gohmert, Marsha Blackburn, Joe Wilson and Steven Palazzo are four of the 67 House members who voted against aid for Hurricane Sandy victims.

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There are 67 Republicans from the House of Representatives who voted against the first round of federal money to pay for flood insurance claims from Hurricane Sandy. You ought to remember every one of them, all these elected officials who seem to have all the qualities of dogs except loyalty.

The worst on this list, and the ones who come across as the biggest phonies, are the ones from places like Florida and Alabama and the Carolinas and Mississippi, the ones who have come running to the federal government with their hands out after their own natural disasters, practically demanding money.

Only now they think they have the right to act as if the residents of Breezy Point and Staten Island and the Jersey Shore are cheap panhandlers instead of good and proud Americans only asking the government to do what it is supposed to do, and essentially be their insurance company.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Rep. Pete King went after House Speaker John Boehner for holding up aid to Hurricane Sandy victims.

You have Mo Brooks of Alabama, who practically went door-to-door in his state after tornados to explain to them how to best get their federal money. You have Sam Graves of Missouri, and go look up what he said after so much of his state nearly ended up underwater in 2011.

These are names to mark lousy forever, men and women of Congress who need to go online and look at pictures of what the storm Sandy did to homes and lives and dreams, what it did to hard-working Americans who played by the rules and paid their dues and their premiums and are now told by 67 House Republicans to go pull themselves up.

Perhaps the worst phony of all of them is Rep. Steven Palazzo, out of Mississippi’s Fourth Congressional District, which happens to be situated on the Gulf Coast. Apparently the government was supposed to come rebuild Biloxi and the rest of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, but is supposed to tell Breezy Point and Staten Island and Jersey to figure it out for themselves.

Tim Larsen/AP

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose state was ravaged by Sandy, blasted his fellow Republicans for playing politics instead of helping those in need who were devastated by storm.

Remember Palazzo’s name. Remember Ted Yoho of Florida and Ron DeSantis of Florida, whoever they are. Make sure you remember Joe Wilson, that mouth-breather from South Carolina who thought it was all right to stand up during a State of the Union address and call the President of the United States a liar.

These are people who voted against money that is a fraction of what the victims of Sandy are entitled to, the part of the legislation - once House Speaker John Boehner stopped playing politics and games, anyway - that was supposed to be easy. Now these same people want to act as if their “no” votes were some sort of brave stance against pork-barrel spending added to the legislation in the Senate.

Many of these people who voted “no” on Sandy relief voted yes on a $50 billion supplemental bill after Katrina, and a $2 billion increase in flood insurance coverage. They include Graves of Georgia. Wilson of South Carolina. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. Louie Gohmert and Randy Neubebauer and Kenny Marchant and Mac Thornberry from Texas. Bob Goodlatte, Virginia. Tom Price, Georgia. Trent Franks, Arizona.

Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News

Sixty-seven Republicans turned their backs on the people in Breezy Point, Queens, and all the other victims whose lives were upended by Hurricane Sandy.

But this isn’t all of the Republicans in the House. There was Pete King going after Boehner and anybody else who wanted to hold up the Sandy money this week, going after Boehner as hard as he could, like this was a bar fight, when Boehner acted too busy to worry about Staten Island and Breezy Point and Long Beach and all the rest of the places Sandy tried to ruin because he was too busy trying to save face on the fiscal cliff.

King said: “Turning your back on people who are starving and freezing is not a Republican value.”

Sixty-seven men and women from Congress did that this week on Hurricane Sandy. A dirty dozen or so came from states that have had their own natural disasters. The people of New York and New Jersey got hit hard enough by Sandy. This week a bunch of Republicans came along and kicked them when they were down.

Remember the 67 Republicans in House of Representatives who turned their backs on Hurricane Sandy victims - NY Daily News

Thanks, SB!

Staten Island | Occupy Sandy Recovery