ON Wednesday night, as a fierce northeaster bore down on the
weather-beaten Rockaways, the relief groups with a noticeable presence
on the battered Queens peninsula were these: the National Guard, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Police and Sanitation
Departments — and Occupy Sandy, a do-it-yourself outfit recently
established by Occupy Wall Street.
This stretch of the coast remained apocalyptic, with buildings burned
like Dresden and ragged figures shuffling past the trash heaps. There
was still no power, and parking lots were awash with ruined cars. On
Wednesday morning, as the winds picked up and FEMA closed its office “due to weather,”
an enclave of Occupiers was huddled in a storefront amid the
devastation, handing out supplies and trying to make sure that those
bombarded by last month’s storm stayed safe and warm and dry this time.
“Candles?” asked a dull-eyed woman arriving at the door.
“I’m sorry, but we’re out,” said Sofia Gallisa, a field coordinator who
had been there for a week. Ms. Gallisa escorted the woman in, and
someone gave her batteries for her flashlight. As she walked away, word
arrived that a firehouse nearby was closing for the night; the
firefighters there were hurrying their rigs to higher ground.
“It’s crazy,” Ms. Gallisa later said of the official response. “For a
long time, we were the only people out here doing relief work.”
After its encampment in Zuccotti Park, which changed the public
discourse about economic inequality and introduced the nation to the
trope of the 1 percent, the Occupy movement has wandered in a desert of
more intellectual, less visible projects, like farming, fighting debt
and theorizing on banking. While several nouns have been occupied — from
summer camp to health care — it is only with Hurricane Sandy
that the times have conspired to deliver an event that fully calls upon
the movement’s talents and caters to its strengths.
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