Mormon Helping Hands: Keansburg, NJ

Jeff and I joined a few members of our ward on Saturday and served with Mormon Helping Hands cleaning out some of the houses that were effected by Sandy. We went to Keansburg, NJ which had significant flooding despite being almost a mile from the ocean. We went in and removed sheetrock, insulation, flooring, and kitchen cabinets. It's amazing the damage that water can do!

I walked around the neighborhood to take pictures and couldn't believe all of the possessions that people had to throw out due to water damage. There were several houses that had notices on them stating that they were not safe for occupation and had to be inspected before people could return.

There is just so much work to be done! Our Stake is volunteering with Mormon Helping Hands every Saturday until Christmas and I don't think that will be enough.

While enjoying pizza that the owner of the house we were clearing out gave us for lunch, two guys from the Baptist Association drove up with a big truck. They were from Indiana and were offering the same services we were. They joined us for a slice of pizza and shared a little bit about themselves. They both took off two weeks from work to come out to NJ to help clean up. 

I took the train into NYC on Monday for the first time since the storm. Since the New Jersey Transit Coastline is down and will be for a long time, the train going up central Jersey was packed! I had to stand the whole time (about an hour) in a hot, crowded train. I was totally annoyed and complaining with the other disgruntled passengers, but then realized how lucky I am that my biggest problem is that I have to stand on the train to go to work. There are people that lost their homes and possessions. I can spend the next couple of months standing on the train.