Queens Library at Arverne Celebrates Re-Opening, Following Superstorm Sandy Re-Build » Public Libraries Online

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Queens Library at Arverne Celebrates Re-Opening, Following Superstorm Sandy Re-Build

by by Thomas W. Galante, President and CEO, Queens Library on April 22, 2014

On April 18, Queens Library celebrated the
grand re-opening of its library in Arverne, one of four on the
beachfront peninsula known as “the Rockaways.” Members of the community
and elected officials crowded the rebuilt library to marvel at how
wonderful it looked and to trade memories about the dark weeks following
Superstorm Sandy. Queens Library at Arverne was one of four Queens
Libraries devastated by the October 2012 hurricane. Storm surge 4 feet
high ruined the walls, furniture, computers and all electrical wiring.
The community residents fared much worse. Economically challenged before
the storm, they depended on their library for after school enrichment,
computer access, job skills training, so much more.

The Arverne library – after the hurricane. Read more...

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After Storm Destruction, Rockaway Libraries Help Keep Community Afloat - NYTimes.com

After Storm Destruction, Rockaway Libraries Help Keep Community Afloat - NYTimes.com
 

By VIVIAN YEE

Published: November 25, 2012

A library bus parked outside the original branch in the Rockaways has become a place for warmth and useful information.

It was the little things, the sudden absence of everyday fixtures, that disoriented residents in the Rockaways in the days after the storm, as much as the loss of house and home. The traffic lights had gone dark. Where was one to get a prescription filled? And oh, what about books due at the library?   Read more....

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Scenes from a Crisis: Volunteers Bond with Occupiers for Sandy Relief

Scenes from a Crisis: Volunteers Bond with Occupiers for Sandy Relief

Wednesday, 14 November 2012 00:00 By John Knefel, Truthout | News Analysis 

(Photo: Brennan Cavanaugh / Flickr)

 With Occupy Sandy relief workers at sites in New York, writer observes volunteers from disparate organizations and backgrounds coming together and bonding under Occupy's banner for a common cause.

As the full extent of Superstorm Sandy's destruction begins to set in, Occupy Sandy continues to expand its effort to provide relief to ravaged areas in Staten Island, Coney Island, Red Hook, and the Rockaways. The work can roughly be divided into two categories: the primary distribution hubs at St. Jacobi Church on Fourth Avenue and 520 Clinton Ave., and the field, where organizers often go intersection by intersection, sometimes door to door to assess needs of the community. What I've found, observing these efforts and increasingly participating in them, is that Occupy Sandy has provided the public with a concrete example of the virtue of Occupy's sometimes abstract ideals. Read read more...

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