Hurricane Sandy—relief, volunteer, and donation info

Getting to class

• A carpooling app, developed by Brooklyn College, has been made available for all CUNY campuses:
  • Create your carpool offer
  • Search existing offers
• See the ‘Transit’ section, below.

NYC updates on utilities / road, bridge, and tunnel closures / transit / schools & colleges / misc.

• Get the latest here. (Also, see below under ‘Transit’ for up-to-date info on public transit, bridge, and tunnel availability.)
• Very useful map showing available transit, food and water distribution points, and a lot more.
• For information within New York City, you can call or text 311, or visit 311 Online.

Counseling—free at the GC

• From the Student Counseling Services, Wellness Center staff:
  • If you are in distress, talking with a counselor can help.  The Student Counseling Services, Wellness Center has reopened.  You can request counseling services by coming to the Wellness Center in room 6422 on the 6th floor of the Graduate Center, calling us at 212.817.7020 or visiting our website www.tinyurl.com/gcwellness.
  • While our services are ordinarily reserved for students only, we would like to extend our services to any faculty or staff members who are currently in crisis. 
    
  • You may also want to read this info on managing your distress in the aftermath of a natural disaster posted by the American Psychological Association.

• CUNY site for Hurricane Sandy Resources & Services, with links to a number of helplines and counseling services.

Donate / volunteer to help with post-Sandy relief efforts

• You can sign up to volunteer with Occupy Sandy Relief to help with NYC relief efforts in person, or make a donation. Go to the Occupy Sandy Relief main site for more info.
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• Check Astoria NYC Recovers for volunteer and donation needs in that area.
• Check The Lower East Side Recovers site for community-driven disaster recovery work you can help with / donate to.
• Check the Red Hook NYC Recovers site for volunteering and donation needs.
• Check the Staten Island Recovers site for details on volunteering and donations needed.
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• Find out where you’re needed as a volunteer through the NYC service site.
• There are details of more volunteer and donation opportunities over at Gothamist.
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• Donations of candles, flashlights, batteries, food, and water are needed, and can be dropped off at a number of locations around the city (just scroll down the Occupy Sandy Relief page for a listing of drop-off and volunteer locations).
• Donation Drive for Far Rockaway and hard-hit areas on Long Island (scroll down the NYC Communities for Change page for details of what’s needed, and for the drop-off address)—donations accepted 9am–7pm, Mon–Fri.

Electricity and gas

• If you get your power from ConEd, you can report an outage or check the restoration status of an address.
• @ConEd is one of the best ways to find out the latest info on where they’ve restored power, and you can check the ConEd Storm Center for a detailed map of specific outages, with estimated dates for restoration of power.
• Please be extremely careful of downed power lines—you should treat all of these as live.
• If you smell gas or see a down power line, be sure to report it to your local utility by using the following phone numbers:
  • Long Island Power Authority: 1-800-490-0075 (to report downed power lines or electrical emergency)
  • National Grid: 1-800-490-0045 (emergency gas safety service)
  • Con-Edison: 1-800-75-CONED
    

Emergency Shelters

• Full list of NYC emergency shelters.
• Find Red Cross shelters.
• Search for open shelters by texting SHELTER and a Zip Code to 43362 (4FEMA). E.g.: SHELTER 01234 (standard rates apply).

Financial assistance