Yesterday AJ and I had the opportunity to drive to Queens, NY to help people who were affected by Hurricane Sandy.
I had no idea what I was going to see or do, but I knew I wanted to help in any way I could.
When we first got to Queens, I was overwhelmed with emotion and sadness for all the people who lived there.
It honestly looked like a war zone to me.
There were hundreds of cars lined up on the medians in the middle of the road that were completely abandoned... you could see that there had been water that went all the way to the roof of the inside of the car and they were completely destroyed.
Many of the people who had left their car were hoping they could get cash for the parts.
When we got to the church where we were meeting, we were given an assignment of a particular home to work on.
We were also given yellow vests that said "Mormon Helping Hands" with the name of our church on the back of them... I was so proud to wear that vest!
There was also a number on the vests where people could call if they needed help from our church.
The particular family we went to help was one of the many people who called for our help.
We worked mostly on their garage and basement, which had both been completely flooded.
We started by clearing everything out and making a big pile in the front of the house for the garbage trucks to pick up.
Everything that was in their garage and their basement was completely damaged from the water.
Every soaking wet box we opened up, we would ask the owner if she wanted to try to salvage it or not... unfortunately, 90% of it could not be salvaged.
We threw away so many things that meant so much to that poor little couple!!
The husband had collected baseball cards for years and years and we found a whole box full of them that were probably worth a ton of money at one point.... it made me so sad to have to throw every single one away because they were so ruined.
In their garage, they also had a fridge that was standing up and had completely fallen over when the hurricane hit.... everything that was on their shelves came crashing down too so their garage was a total disaster!
You can see in the before/after pictures I took.
Before
After
By the time we got to the back of the garage, the water had started to cause mold on a lot of things and so the smell was awful! After we finished cleaning out the garage, we tried to clean as much as we could so the smell would go away.
There was also a lot of work to be done in the basement. All of the dry wall had to be torn down.... the poor couple basically has to start from scratch on their basement now.
At one point, all the guys had to move the two cars that were parked in the driveway to make room for things we were hauling to the front of the house.
Yes, they MOVED A CAR!
This is the pile that was in front of the house when we were done (and this was only 1/3 of it because the garbage trucks had already made 2 stops earlier in the day).
You can see they had a lot of their clothes hanging out to dry as well.
Another thing that broke my heart was all
the signs we saw throughout the neighborhood trying to ward off
"looters"... I didn't know what the term "looters" meant until
yesterday, but it's when people come and steal things that have been
layed out to dry.
It made me really mad to think that people would steal from others who have already lost so much!
This is a picture of all the young men & leaders we came with. It was so great to have so many boys who wanted to help out.
We even got to keep the vests!
This entire experience was so humbling and I'm just glad we were able to be a part of it.
One of the things that made me feel really good was having people honk at us as they drove by and yell "thank you" from their cars.
Someone in our stake made a video... I posted the link below. I definitely recommend watching it!
