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Paint Maker ‘Giving Moore’ after Sandy

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

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Benjamin Moore has joined in the Hurricane Sandy recovery effort, donating thousands of buckets of emergency cleaning supplies to victims in New York and New Jersey.

Volunteers from the Montvale, NJ-based paint manufacturer went door to door Nov. 15 in Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island and other Brooklyn neighborhoods, distributing several thousand five-gallon buckets of supplies. Benjamin Moore was founded in Brooklyn in 1883.

Benjamin Moore

Jonathan Chiari (center), of Brooklyn paint retailer Jack Loconsolo, and George to the Rescue's George Oliphant (right) greet a Brooklyn resident with cleanup supplies from Benjamin Moore.

The team worked on the initiative with local retailer Jack Loconsolo & Co., a family-owned Brooklyn business that has served the community since 1922. George Oliphant, the building contractor who stars in NBC-TV’s George to the Rescue, also helped with the effort.

Another truckload and busload of supplies and volunteers will head Thursday (Nov. 29) to Union Beach, NJ, to help residents there. Union Beach was one of New Jersey’s hardest-hit communities in last month's storm.

Union Beach, NJ, was one of the New Jersey communities hardest hit by the storm. Damage statewide has been estimated at $29.4 billion.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently estimated Sandy’s damage to that state at $29.4 billion. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo put the tab for his state at $33 billion.

Many Volunteer Efforts

Thousands of volunteers are helping stricken areas recover from the so-called “superstorm” that devastated areas of the U.S. Northeast and the Caribbean.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) urges prospective volunteers and donors to the relief effort to work with established nonprofit organizations with whom FEMA partners.

Patsy Lynch / FEMA

Many volunteer groups are providing free assistance to property owners in Union Beach, NJ, who were affected by Hurricane Sandy.

The agency has been collaborating with many national, state, tribal, and local partners in response to Hurricane Sandy.

For the latest information on how some of FEMA's partners are responding, visit their websites directly at National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, the Corporation for National and Community Service / Serve.gov, HandsOn Network, and United Way 2-1-1.

Scams and Rumors

FEMA has also established a Rumor Control Page to help inform and protect victims and donors alike during the cleanup process. The rumors range from everything that FEMA has run out of bottled water, is handing out food stamps and paying people $1,000 to help with cleanup (all false) to temporary closures of Disaster Recovery Centers and long wait times for agency callers (true).

The latest scam, announced last week, involves individuals who claim be "City Assessment Contractors" assessing houses under the New York Rapid Repairs and Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power (STEP) program telling residents to provide immediate payment for services.

These bogus "contractors" are claiming that FEMA will reimburse survivors for assessment costs and guarantee additional cash payments of $10,000 to be used for rapid repairs to their homes. This is false. STEP assessments are free and do not provide money to individuals.