Hi everybody,
Using every social networking channel I can think of. I have a friend on the West Coast who is desperately seeking word of her 85 year old mother in Rockaway, NY.
We're trying to find out about Patrice Morreale. She lives at:
Park Nursing Home.
128 BEACH 115TH STREET
ROCKAWAY PARK, NY, 11694
If you or someone you know is in the area, will you please go check on her and let us know if she's okay?
We know that the facility is struggling, via an article in the Huffington Post:
One block from Velez and the burned businesses, 182 residents and dozens of staffers of Park Nursing Home were getting through another day.
The lobby of the building is a sodden, sandy mess, flooded by several feet of ocean water. So are a few dozen rooms and offices on the ground level.
Patrick Russell, the manager, said that the Office of Emergency Management did not try to move residents out of the nursing home before the storm. As The Huffington Post previously reported, the office did not evacuate any of the multiple nursing homes in the Rockaways ahead of the storm, even though the entire peninsula was in a mandatory evacuation zone.
But the facility in many ways is fortunate: The kitchen, though also on the ground floor, is on the uphill side of the building, and was spared from the flooding. So was the generator. There is plenty of food and heat, though hallways are dark and elevators aren't running. After the storm, his staff delivered 200 cream cheese and jelly sandwiches to the residents of another nursing home across the street, which had lost all power and were evacuated later that day.
Sounds like they could be worse, but, imagine, this is a facility full of seniors who need daily assistance. And there are other senior homes throughout the neighborhood.
I'm seeing tweets saying that Rockaway is just devastated and looting has begun:
tctxsweetyNov 04, 12:43am via Twitter for iPhone
RT @GCGATOR24: @AdamSchefter I am getting pleas for help on twitter for rockaway and staten island no FEMA or red cross. Serious looting. Spread the word
I'd been hearing a bit out Staten Island in the media, but hadn't quite realized how bad it was in Rockaway and that no relief help of significance has arrived. This has me very concerned:
Saint_TueCynnNov 04, 12:29am via Facebook
So I feel like I should do a video about how Far Rockaway is New York's 9th Ward...... we need Americorps FEMA... fb.me/1lfIMCqEp
All of this is causing great distress for my friend and her sister who are so, so worried about their mother.
If you can find out anything, we'd be so grateful.