Hurricane Irene's Impact Endures in Long Beach

* This story was updated at 6:45 a.m. on Oct. 10.

A mini-van with an Iowa plates was parked outside St. Mary of the Isle Church in Long Beach last week.

The vehicle belonged to Mark and Carol Martin of Iowa City, a husband and wife who volunteer for Disaster Response Services (DRS), an arm of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee at the Michigan-based Christian Reformed Church. Their stop at the church at East Park Avenue last Thursday was their latest on Long Island, after setting up walk-in center at parishes in Freeport, Amityville, Patchogue and Babylon earlier in the week, and prior to making another stop in Massapequa on Saturday.

Their mission is to find and meet with any homeowners still impacted by the wrath of Hurricane Irene in August 2011. They mainly assist people who remain unable to repair damages to their dwellings, whether through their insurance companies, the government or on their own.

“We are finding that the primary need is bulkhead repair, flooding damage and mold, and roof repair,” Carol Martin said of the Long Island families who seek assistance. “We’re finding a lot of people who had severe flooding, and now they are having mold damage.”

As Patch reported in August, Nassau County said the total cost of preparation, clean-up and repairs incurred by Hurricane Irene was about $12 million. The county submitted FEMA claims for $11.9 million and have thus far been approved for $10.5 million, but the county had only received approximately $700,000 in FEMA aid.

Working with affiliates, including Long Island Long Term Recovery and Catholic Charities Diocese of Rockville Centre, the DRS’s Hurricane Committee searches for people still in need due to a natural disaster, usually a hurricane, tornado or flooding, which has impacted their whole community. In addition to posting fliers in communities that they believe were most impacted, such as Long Beach and other waterfront towns, DRS representatives also go door to door. Last week, seven couples targeted certain neighborhoods in Long Beach.

The day before they arrived in the city, case managers were able to meet with 292 residents in Babylon. Laura Messano, a supervisor case manager for Catholic Charities, said that some people that they assist are still not back living in their homes due to the hurricane’s damage.  

“The people we help are those who have not received any kind of help before,” Messano said, but noted that the program is also for people who may not have applied for FEMA. “We try to contact the people who have exhausted their resources to get reimbursement through FEMA or through their insurance companies and aren’t able to recover on their own.”

Sometimes assistance comes in the form of just getting homeowners the necessary carpentry tools they need to rebuild on their own, or it could be money given to them for necessary appliances, such as an oil burner.

Funds are provided through federal and state grants, charities, corporate givers and other private donors. While Catholic Charities did not return a call on Monday to elaborate on the programs, a flyer the charity distributes states that the New York State Disaster Case Management Program is operated under the auspices of the New York State Department of Homeland Security Office of Emergency Management and funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Asked how case managers know the damage homeowners experienced was actually due to a natural disaster, Carol Martin said that risk assessors in part visit their homes and make that determination. “It’s pretty evident whether their damage is from the hurricane or not,” she said, and added that DRS’s primary purpose in visiting with such families is to “hear their stories.”

This week, DRS representatives will revisit some of the parishes they were stationed at last week, including St. Mary’s in Long Beach.

Blanca Cales, the outreach director at St. Mary’s and St. Ignatius Church in Long Beach, said this was the first time the parishes have worked with a disaster relief organization. Their largest project is stocking their food pantries, and they also provide various other services, from health screenings to financial assistance for utility bills. Cales said that St. Mary’s welcomed the opportunity to offer a site for the disaster relief program.

“A lot of the time Long Beach gets overlooked for these projects because people see us as being so far away,” she said. “I like to remind them that we’re here and willing to help.”

This week’s walk-in centers on Long Island:

Freeport Presbyterian Church
178 S. Ocean Ave.
Freeport NY
Oct. 9 - 12-4; 5-9p.m.

East Patchogue
St. Joseph the Worker
510 Narragansett Ave.
East Patchogue
Oct 10 - 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; 5-8 p.m.

Long Beach
St. Mary of the Isle
315 E. Walnut St.
Oct 11 - 12-4; 5-9 p.m.