Update on Paul "Good News!"

Updated on December 31, 2012

Hi Everyone

Good news! My family and I are no longer living at the Red Cross emergency shelter at Nassau Community College. We spent six grueling weeks there, and we left nearly exactly to the day and time we arrived. We entered on Monday October 29th at 11:00-11:30 AM, and we left on Monday December 10th at roughly 11:00 AM.

We're now living in a small two-family house in Valley Stream - which is just two towns away from East Rockaway. The house is surrounded by parking lots - there's no front yard, no backyard, no grass to be seen anywhere! It's the only house on the block. On the other side of the block are the backs of the houses from the condominium complex on the next block over. Here are some photos of the new place. You can find more photos in this Facebook gallery. The first photo below shows the entirety of the house. We're renting the second and third floors. The third floor is only an attic room. Although, I did not see any living coat racks up there, I found a bunch of stuff the previous tenants left behind.


This second photo shows me in front of the house wearing my new special shirt. I bought it a week earlier in Target for $10. I have a nice collection of Ghostbusters shirts in one of the swelled-up dresser drawers back at the Hurricane-damaged house.


The new house resides within one of Cablevision's Optimum wifi hotspots. I'm actually typing this message on my iPod Touch while sitting on the floor in my bedroom!!!

Now that my family has a permanent residence, the hard part begins... and this is where I need help from any of you in the Long Island, New York area.

We need someone with a big car or a van to help us move undamaged and salvageable items from the old house to the new one.

This job needs to be done IMMEDIATELY AS THE OLD LANDLORD WANT TO DEMOLISH THE OLD HOUSE! We don't know when he's gonna do it, but it would be best to get our stuff out ASAP.

If anyone reading this is in the Long Island, New York area, specifically Nassau County, and you're wiling to help us, please email me and I'll give you my cell phone number.

Thanks.

December 14, 2012:

A brief update - Thanks to Alim Gafar and Robert Als generously donating their time and themselves, a lot was accomplished today in getting undamaged and salvageable stuff from the old house to the new house. The living room is nearly cleaned out, and a lot was taken from the dining room and my bedroom.

That said, there is still a lot more work to do. Anyone in the Long Island area who has a driver's license and can help, please email me so we can discuss it further. If you have a large truck, that's a plus. I need all the help I can get since Alim and Robert have a limited amount of time in which they're available.

December 20, 2012:

Alim and I went back to the East Rockaway house today. We broke open some more dresser drawers and got out almost all of the soaked clothes, which we'll take to the laundromat tomorrow.

My collection of one to two dozen Ghostbusters t-shirts all survived, but will all need to be laundered. Some had to be taken out of their original plastic bags. As for the rest of my Ghostbusters collection, see this post.

December 31, 2012:

First, I'd like to publicly thank Chad Paulson of Ghostbusters.org for the generous gift of $150.

I truly appreciate all of the support everyone has given me, financially, physically, emotionally, and otherwise. I like to publicly acknowledge all of the support given to me as it's the least I can do to show my thanks. That said, if anyone that I've publicly thanked does not want to be publicly thanked, just let me know. I respect the privacy of others.

Second, if anyone wants to know what it looked like inside the emergency shelter I spent six weeks in, here's a video uploaded by the Red Cross in early November.

-- Greater NY Red Cross CEO Josh Lockwood visits the Red Cross shelter at Nassau Community College (Uploaded to YouTube on November 3, 2012)

We got out of the emergency shelter at the right time. Six days after we left, the Red Cross closed the place. Here's the article about it posted two weeks ago on the Red Cross website.

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Red Cross Closes Last Shelter on Long Island
December 17, 2012

The American Red Cross closed its last remaining shelter on Long Island Sunday, Dec. 16. Located at Nassau Community College, in East Garden City, the shelter was opened in advance of Superstorm Sandy, Oct. 28.

The number of people staying in the shelter had steadily declined as residents moved into more suitable housing solutions. Red Cross caseworkers, working closely with officials from FEMA, and Nassau County, have been meeting one-on-one with the remaining shelter residents to help determine their needs and the next step for their individual recovery.

"We are extremely grateful to the administration and staff at Nassau Community College, as well as the Nassau County Office of Emergency Management, for their support throughout this disaster," said John Miller, CEO, American Red Cross on Long Island. "The Red Cross opens shelters during an emergency to help people who need a safe place to stay; yet shelters typically aren't intended to stay open for long periods of time. Working with our partners, we will help the remaining residents find more suitable accommodations."

At its peak, nearly 1,000 Long Islanders called the Nassau Community College shelter home. Only a handful of residents remained at the shelter going into the weekend. Some can't return home due to storm damage and are being helped through a transitional sheltering assistance program through FEMA. The program helps to relocate survivors to hotels or other temporary housing solutions. Some shelter residents will be helped through other community programs.

While the shelter is closing, the Red Cross response to the needs of those affected across Long Island continues.

"The Red Cross is still working on Long Island and is committed to helping people affected by Sandy recover," said Miller. "We continue to provide food, supplies and other help to survivors. We are also actively working with communities to determine unmet needs and how the Red Cross can meet those needs– and will continue this throughout the recovery process."

Since Superstorm Sandy, the Red Cross has operated 27 shelters on Long Island, with more than 25,000 overnight stays. Additionally, nearly one million meals and snacks have been served to Long Islanders by the nonprofit, along with 2.3 million relief items like comfort kits, blankets and cleanup supplies.

All Red Cross disaster assistance is provided at no cost to those affected, thanks to the generosity of the public and volunteers. To learn more about the Red Cross response to Superstorm Sandy, visit http://www.redcross.org.

http://www.nyredcross.org/?nd=news_room_detail&news_id=656