In Hard-Hit Rockaways, Community Begs For Basic Necessities

ROCKAWAY, N.Y. -- On Thursday afternoon, firemen set up a few grills near an intersection here and cooked burgers for hungry residents in this beach community devastated by Hurricane Sandy.


On Friday afternoon, the grills were gone. The firemen were now training a hose on a row of businesses and homes around the corner that had burned down at the height of the storm. The only lunch option for those in need was a small pile of packaged goods dumped in a unappetizing heap on the dirty ground near a crowded mobile phone charging station set up by police. The nearest hot meal was more than a mile away, past the smoldering ruins, at an intersection where Ajay Singh and three other Sikh men from Queens had come of their own initiative to dole out steaming bowls of rice and beans and toasted bread made in their church kitchen.


"We have no electricity, no water and some of us don't have enough food," said Melissa Lopez, who was waiting with more than a dozen others for her phone to charge. "When are we going to get help?"




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