Hurricane Sandy: Chinatown Black Market Emerges as Vendors Hawk Batteries, Candles,  Outlets from the Huffington Post (includes a small photo album)

I’m not terribly surprised that after Sandy, black markets emerged. When people are without things that they believe to be necessities, especially in this day and age of technology, they are generally willing to pay any price to gain access to their phones and not to have to sit in the dark. There was a quote from a bakery owner that said “Whatever you can do to stay open, you do it” which I think really sums up what the people who opened up the bodegas and makeshift street stands to sell batteries, flashlights, and other essentials, for way over-price.

Hurricane Sandy Alert: Lower Manhattan Chinatown Needs Volunteers to Help from 8asians

8asians is a blog dedicated to writing about Asian American issues, and during Sandy it sent out a help-wanted alert during Sandy. The Asian American Writers’ Workshop originally sent out the statement, however it is blogs like 8asians who have dedicated followers in the communities that needed help that can get the word out to many more people.

Residents Could be Without Power for Days in Hurricane Sandy Aftermath from OurChinatown (Con-Edison Power Outtage Map)

Several Videos From Youtube

From WSJDigitalNetwork 30 Oct 2012: Shows the LES after Sandy as well as storefront awnings and sides in Chinatown.

From Joel Silver 30 Oct 2012: Shows a brief look at Chinatown after Sandy, the stores were closed and the streets were very empty for Chinatown.

From videonation 1 Nov 2012: Shows footage of Chinatown after Sandy as well as interviews with CAAAV staff members and volunteers.

From meniscuszine 2 Nov 2012: Shows how the stores were closed, the lights out, and how people were lining up to get their phone’s charged and gather supplies from the CAAAV, which took donations.

From Jan Lee 12 Nov 2012: Shows volunteers from Chinatown Community Young Lions helped out at Hamilton Madison House which had been turned into a commissary, warming centre, supply distribution centre, and an information clearing house.

Homecrest, Brooklyn wasn’t hit as hard by Hurricane Sandy as some of the areas around it. Homecrest’s border closest to the water coincided with where the flood waters stopped. As you traveled from this Avenue X border towards the Emmons Avenue Canal, which caused most of the flooding in the area, the waters got higher and higher.

The following video shows the water from the Emmons Avenue Canal beginning to rise. This footage was shot before Sandy hit land. The water continued to rise after this point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWGNuXum4PI

 Power outages in Homecrest were minimal, according to my friends who live in different parts of the neighborhood, and considering that no reports indicated otherwise. Power was lost for only several hours, and stop lights on the Ocean Parkway/Avenue U intersection were not working properly. The following is a post that appeared on a liveblog on www.brooklynpaper.com on October 30^th, 2012, after Sandy had done most of its damage.

“5:26 pm: Traffic lights across Southern Brooklyn are on the fritz. Things are particularly dicey at the intersection of Ocean Parkway and Avenue U where stoplights not operating. Drivers heading across town should avoid Avenue U, and take Avenue T instead.

There are multiple trees down on Van Sicklen Street, at Gravesend Neck Road and between Avenues U and T.”

That pretty much covers how much damage Homecrest sustained.

No big looting incidents were reported in Homecrest. The biggest looting that was covered happened in Coney Island after Sandy, where people actually carried LCD televisions out of a Rent-A-Center in broad daylight, and thousands of dollars of liquor was stolen off shelves in late morning of October 30^th, 2012.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/looters-target-coney-island-sandy-article-1.1195080

Additional sources used:

www.maps.google.com

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/35/44/all_hurricanesandyliveblogday2_2012_11_02_bk.html

At least a part of the Homecrest area of Brooklyn was seriously affected by Hurricane Sandy, and one can see that is true just from looking at the Avenue U N train station photograph from the disaster:Source:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225164/Hurricane-Sandy-batters-New-York-Citys-subway-tunnels-flooded-network-shuts-down.html

Source: http://prattcenter.net/map/toward-informed-rebuilding-documenting-sandys-impacts

According to this map, the main Homecrest area was not flooded by Hurricane Sandy, but water came up really close to it. Maybe the map labeling of neighborhoods is not entirely accurate since Avenue U passes through the center of Homecrest and it was obviously flooded at least partially, according to photographic evidence like the train station picture above.

Since there is not much information regarding flooding of the Homecrest neighborhood, overall the conditions were probably not as bad as in some other, more coastal places.
Some primary sources reported power outages. (More information to follow.)

Here are a few videos about the effects of Sandy on Chinatown:

Chinatown while recovering from Sandy, gets ready for Election Day: http://vimeo.com/52902492
This video includes segments that show how there was little help in clearing fallen trees in Chinatown. It also shows how some businesses were affected by the storm and power outages.

One Dolla, Chinatown by Jane Teeling:
http://vimeo.com/52664895
This video shows a one-dollar store that opened up after the hurricane. It shows how not everyone took advantage of the situation to raise prices and to make money off the devastation.

Here are sites that show the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy on Chinatown:

http://www.ourchinatown.org/2012/11/29/post-sandy-chinatown-updates-and-links/
This is a collection of posts from the Asian American Writer’s Workshop’s Open City Magazine, which covered the effect of the storm from day one.

http://voicesofny.org/2012/11/chinatown-business-owners-blast-government-over-lack-of-support/
This article assesses the damage the hurricane inflicted on the businesses in Chinatown and whether or not the customers will return.

This is a compelling image of the blackout that occurred in lower Manhattan as a result of the storm.
(http://www.chinatownpartnership.org/newsletter/2012%2011%2007%20Hurricane%20Sandy%20-%20Chinatown%20Update.htm)

Looting became a problem in the following days and many threatened shop owners created signs warning off potential thieves.

—   This video was taken by a resident and not professionally edited but it tours right through the center of Coney Island and shows the situation just hours after the storm.

–The first video includes interviews of local residents and was done by the New York Post.

The following is a personal account of what happened on Hester Street Day 4 after Hurricane Sandy hit. Lines were forming for food and necessities while community organizations were handing them out for two days before FEMA showed up to offer aid.

http://opencitymag.com/after-hurricane-sandy-day-4-hester-street-in-lower-manhattan/#.UJRgEGl25-I

This link shows a personal account of a Sukjong Hong, who went into a building to help those in need of getting necessities after the hurricane. There are drawn pictures documenting what happened instead of real pictures.

http://opencitymag.com/left-in-the-dark/

The following are pictures of the volunteers and the effort to help the people in Chinatown, who were left without electricity.

http://opencitymag.com/hurricane-sandy-day-4-lower-east-side-and-chinatown/

The following newsletter contains information about subway lines, important information about food (whether it is safe to drink or not), contact information, financial assistance, school information and so on.

http://www.chinatownpartnership.org/newsletter/2012%2011%2007%20Hurricane%20Sandy%20-%20Chinatown%20Update.htm