Helping Hands in Rockaway Beach, NY

The partial letter below is from Benjamin, to his Family, describing part of his experience helping with the cleanup from the devastating storm that hit New York October 29th.  After the letter is a vimeo taken of some of these volunteers in helping Rockway.

Today also started way too early. I was up at 6:30 to go to an early morning Sacrament meeting and then head out to Rockaway Beach with a good fraction of the stake to help with the hurricane recovery effort.  Anyway, it was quite an experience going out to the Rockaways. It looks like a war zone. Houses missing entire walls, debris and sand piled up in the streets, cars and furniture and appliances scattered around haphazardly--it is really a devastating scene. But people are starting to rebuild, and most people that we talked to seemed to be moving forward with a determined attitude. We broke into groups of 10-15 volunteers and helped individual homeowners haul out ruined property, rip out damaged sheetrock and insulation, pull out carpets, clean up muck, and shovel sand, lots and lots of sand. People seemed to generally recognize the yellow vests of the "Mormon Helping Hands" and appreciate the help we were offering. We worked until 4:00 PM then headed back to the city.

Mormon Helping Hands :: Hurricane Sandy :: Rockaways, NY from Joshua Brown on Vimeo.