Volunteers with Occupy Sandy organization reunite to mark 10th anniversary of devastating storm
NEW YORK -- Superstorm Sandy devastated the Tri-State Area, taking 44 lives in New York City alone and causing $19 billion in damage, but it also forced some people to come together and help others.
One of the groups formed from the disaster is now known as Occupy Sandy. They helped an untold number of people recover from the storm.
Ten years after the tragedy, CBS2's Steve Overmyer caught up with volunteers as they reunited to mark the anniversary.
Among those volunteers is Sal Lopizzo, the founder of You Are Never Alone, or YANA.
"It was a big force during the Hurricane Sandy, the recovery ... It turned into what's called Occupy Sandy and now they're a legend," Lopizzo said. "What was really amazing was the way that people responded."
"Occupy Sandy was born out of Occupy Wall Street," said Goldie Guerrra. "We had our little text loops from Occupy Wall Street. We just sort of re-jiggered them for hurricane relief and they were called Occupy Sandy."
"Occupy Sandy represented something that wasn't necessarily new but is in some ways the sort of most vibrant response to any disaster which is sort of like people powered," Michael Premo said.
"We knew how to organize a structure ... Someone created an Amazon gift registry," Andrew Smith said. "I'd say about five days later, six days later, like, one UPS truck, like normal UPS truck, showed up. We're like, 'OK, yeah, fill itup, let's get the stuff.' They're like, 'No, the whole thing is all your stuff' and then he's like 'and that too,' and a UPS 18-wheeler pulls in."
Smith says they received $750,000 worth of donations, in addition to a quarter of a million dollars in cash. Fifty-thousand volunteers mobilized.
"A ton just poured in," Smith said.
"My whole office was brought down to the bones. We filled it up with supplies. We had diapers, toiletries, food. We were feeding 1,000 people a day. There was no military, no police force, nobody, it was all done grassroots," Lopizzo said.
"There really wasn't much in the way of government assistance coming. So, Occupy really did fill in those gaps," Kalin Callaghan said. "I remember Red Cross showing up with cold hot dogs like weeks after the storm. We were just like, 'You gotta be kidding me with this.'"
Speaking to a crowd of reunited volunteers, Lopizzo recalled, "I didn't know what to do. A friend of mine told me, 'Listen, Sal, it's over, man. You did the best you could.' So, I said a prayer, did some meditation, I opened my eyes and there was Premo."
"One thing that's interesting about Occupy Sandy that really sort of like hit home at scale was when the Department of Homeland Security did a study on Occupy Sandy. And that really hit home. The scale and the efficacy of our effort that has largely gone unrecognized in the sort of broader conversations," Premo said.
"I could just cry ... I look at them now, it's 10 years later, and they were kids, and now they're adults and they're doing the same thing," Lopizzo said.
"Ten years later, I feel so warm being back here with all these good folks that I really love. Looking back and I can think about how the impact of Sandy and the organizing that we did after really kind of shaped the trajectory of my life," Callaghan said.
"We gotta stop thinking about the 1 percent and just realize that we are the 99 percent. And we'll do whatever it takes. So that's it. Thank you all. I just love every single one of you," Lopizzo told the reunited volunteers.