Marathon of Relief 2012

Okay, so there was no Marathon on Sunday.  For what it's worth, it's not entirely a bad thing to wake up in the morning and _not_ have to run 26.2 miles. Instead, I decided to join the army of marathoners who were doing what they could to join in the relief efforts. Luckily a gang of Brooklyn Tri Club members had been working all week to put together a group to help out -- Marathon of Relief 2012.  They were organizing groups heading out to various places throughout the city, including a group that was going to run or bike to Coney Island.  A friend (Jeb Singer) and I ran a few miles beforehand and then met the group at Grand Army Plaza.   The group consisted of Brooklynites, and a fair number of out of towners who had come to run the marathon, but had stayed to help.

We ran through Prospect Park, and then down Ocean Parkway, basically retracing the route of the Brooklyn Half Marathon.  When we arrived at the Boardwalk we found it covered with sand and debris, but not by any means destroyed: 

Then we found our way to the volunteer station, where they were fully booked.

This did not come as a complete surprise.  It took two more sites before we found a center that needed help.  We were divided up into groups and sent door to door through Seagate, looking for folks who might need food and water.  We took blankets, MREs and water, and wandered off. 

What we found on this first foray was a lot of damage, but not many people in need of help.  The neighborhood was a series of blocks of one and two family houses with water but no electricity.  Most had evacuated, and many houses had work crews pumping out basements and pulling out debris.  We handed out a lot of water to work crews, but nobody we saw was in extremis.  They were happy to see us, though, and that made it worthwhile.  

After finishing our wander through Seagate, we started back for another tour of the volunteer sites to see what help was needed.   When we came to the Red Cross truck, they wanted "marathoners" to help carry food and water to the top floors of the blacked out NYCHA apartment buildings.  This was precisely the sort of work I'd hoped we would do.  We split into groups of 3-5, carrying water, self heating hot meals, bananas, snacks, and blankets.  The apartment buildings were 14-16 stories each.  Apparently the city does not require emergency lighting in the stairwells or hallways of its own buildings.  Walking into each building was surreal.  As soon as the door closed behind you, the stairwells were pitch black.  Each group had a few flashlights, so we stayed together, and worked our way up the stairs in the dark.  We walked to the top floor, and then worked our way down.  On each floor we would knock on doors and announce ourselves as Red Cross.  On almost every floor there were one or two families stuck in their apartments for one reason or another.  Some were diabetic, some on walkers, some just hunkered down and waiting for the power to come back on.  Again, all were happy for the help, and many were truly in need.  We took down the names and apartment numbers of those who appeared to be in trouble, and gave those to the police at the end of each run.  We managed to complete three buildings before dark.  

There's nothing particularly unique about this story, marathoners and non-marathoners were pitching in all over the city.  Each of our contributions was only a small drop in the bucket.  But at the end of the day, I'm glad the marathon was cancelled, so that we could all turn our personal resources to the recovery effort.