It’s been two years since Hurricane Sandy swept through New York and New Jersey. The storm wreaked the kind of havoc on the five boroughs and sections of Long Island and southern New Jersey that many residents of those areas never thought possible during their lifetimes. Homeowners saw years’ worth of hard work and memories ruined or washed away. Flood waters displaced renters, leaving them searching for housing in a contracting and expensive market. The storm mercilessly left our poorest, oldest and most vulnerable in cold and darkness, without access to essentials like food and medicine.

While Sandy brought unprecedented disaster upon the residents and infrastructure of New York and New Jersey, thousands of 1199SEIU members were doing their best to safeguard their patients and communities, all the while knowing that when the storm cleared many among them would face the enormous task of putting their own lives back together.

In the months after Sandy 1199SEIU members, true to form, pulled together and began the long process of helping each other rebuild. The Union set up an aid hotline. Mobile sites visited affected areas throughout New York and New Jersey where members received help filling out or following up on their FEMA applications. Counseling services were available to National Benefit Fund through the Members Assistance Program. Members and employers set up numbers of donation sites at of institutions throughout the area and gave their time, energy, goods and money to help get workers and families back on their feet. Truckloads of supplies from the relief organization Americares were donated and distributed.

199 members hand out clothes and supplies to those affected by Hurricane Sandy in November, 2012”

The road to recovery from Sandy has been a long one. And many of our brothers and sisters are still putting together the pieces of lives broken apart by the storm. Today we remember that day. We thank every 1199SEIU member for their sacrifice and courage during that extraordinary chapter in our history and we share just a few of the stories of some of our members who were affected on that terrible day two years ago.

Read the extraordinary stories from: Tonisha Williams | Tracey Olsen | Antonia Bessos