I thought that, just because the news coverage had stopped
months ago, everything had been cleaned up. Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast
at the end of October. We arrived in New York City in late February as part of Georgetown
University Hurricane Emergency Relief Efforts (GU HERE), and much of the damage
still remained. We spent our days clad in white Tyvek suits, respirators, and
goggles to protect ourselves from the mold building up in the houses we were
working in. Mold removal is a tedious process that involves scrubbing every
visible surface with a special cleaning solution.
Spending
endless hours working on a house, only to be told that we weren’t anywhere
close to finishing, gave me a profound understanding for the sheer amount of
work required to rebuild after a disaster like Sandy. It’s work that is likely
to continue for years and that is already being forgotten.
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