NEW YORK — A silver lining frames the cloud of destruction left by Superstorm Sandy. In their hour of greatest need, families and communities — not the government — were the most helpful sources of assistance and support.
A poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that after the storm in New York and New Jersey, friends, relatives and neighbors were cited most often as the people who helped them make it through.
People said the Oct. 29 storm brought out the best in their neighbors, who shared generators, food, water and other supplies.
Stranded in her darkened 20th-floor apartment in Brooklyn’s Coney Island with two small children, Irina Medvinskaya was desperate in the bleak days after the storm. The elevators stopped working. The food in her refrigerator spoiled.
Without the help of friends and family — particularly her boyfriend, who lugged full water-cooler bottles up the stairs — she doesn’t know how she would have survived.
“People who can bring you food and water, and walk up 20 floors?” she said. “That’s family, not FEMA.”
The nationwide survey of 2,025 individuals, including 1,007 residents of 16 hard-hit counties in New York and New Jersey, assessed the recovery and resilience of affected communities about six months after the storm hit. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.0 percentage points; for respondents in the affected areas, it is 4.7 points.
