ATTENTION MEMBERS AND FRIENDS----BELOW IS THE LASTEST EMAIL FROM GASPARE----IT IS A VERY SAD SITUATION FOR HIM AND HIS FAMILY----PLEASE IF ANYONE CAN HELP IN THIS TIME OF NEED HIS MAILING ADDRESS IS
GASPARE BUA
58 WARWICK ROAD
ISLAND PARK NY 11558
It's 12 days with no Nat.Gas, no water, no Elec.! , we managed to save some clothes but no where to wash them!..
My wife must be at work at the hospital by Monday... They might give us an unfinished studio Apt. so she can be close to work. We're hopeing there is a laundry there as they have full power there and everything.. My parents, daughters, and my son/grandson all safe but far from home, living in small spaces and anxious to get back...

My shop got hit with 4 ft water. All the stock gone or damaged, same with my tools. The 4 investment bikes are ruined, 2 customer bikes ruined [I owe them each a $10k bike! - Most of my collection gone,,just not there!, blown away or out when the tide went out!

Gasoline,,,1 hr away there is no problem getting gas! The Rockaways,,Coney Island,, Brighton Beach,,Long Beach ,Oceanside,and me [Island Park] ,even with odd/even rationing there are 2 hr line IF a station has gas.. The crooks are staling Gens. like crazy. Nat.Guard protect food,water,and the charities for us.

My home is just a roof and exterior walls. Seawater and raw sweage all thru it. Working everyday to clean and disinfect. Start at 8a.m. and by 3:30 I'm shot. Eat with the Army guys breakfast/lunch every day,,great group and they really care and help...
Doesn't look like there is much 'start up' money from our flood companies. Last year they fronted us 10K to start but this year because of so much damage they said $3K!..I don't even know where my hot water heater is! , burner and all appliences either not there anymore or damaged. Power Authrority condemed my house wireing and main panel today! thats probably $5 K right there when and IF we can even get a lic. electrition!.. Contractors are going to Penn. and Deleaware to get boilers/burners etc. Every gas meter in my town must be replaced. When they all are we will have Nat.Gas,,estimated time,5 days! IF everything works out right and no leaks when they test.


PLEASE, do not donate to the RED CROSS!. They get millions and give us donated water/blankets..

I'm at hospital now on their internet as we still don't have, and even the cell phones act weird at our town...

IF there is topic on the forums you guys can go right ahead and post this so all will know the terrible conditions we're living in with no real projected end in site for thr hard hit areas.

Hopefully this apt will be the answer for us for a couple months and I'll have a warm place to hang out heads....Thanks,G.

Hello Andy,

I would be more than happy to give my contribution to Gaspare and I'm sure others will, any chance to have his Paypal account posted ?

Thanks in advance

Ric

I want to send him some money too, can we have his details posted up please Andy, this is insane for Gaspare and I want to show my friendship directly with a few $$
Infact does anyone know how old G's kids are girls/boys? At least we can buy some kids clotes and send them out.....

Hi Andy,
See my PM today
A lot are going to want to help.
Need a fool proof means Mailing fraught with
trouble.Not ALL use PayPal.
!!!!
Read and waiting your reply.
Best .
Seiler (Doug)
Yank in UK

Hi Andy,
See my PM today
A lot are going to want to help.
Need a fool proof means Mailing fraught with
trouble.Not ALL use PayPal.
!!!!
Read and waiting your reply.
Best .
Seiler (Doug)
Yank in UK

hi if you have gaspares email address, and access to paypal
its easy to donate. mike

ATTENTION PLEASE
THIS IS GASPARE'S PAYPAL ACCOUNT PLEASE BE SURE TO SEND FUNDS AS PERSONAL AND A GIFT THEREFORE HE WILL NOT INCUR ANY FEE'S IF YOU PREFER TO MAIL A DONATION BELOW IS HIS ADDRESS ALL HIS MAIL WILL BE PICKED UP BY HIM AT THE POST OFFICE ANY AND ALL HELP WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED HIS CHILDREN ARE GROWN AND HE DOES HAVE A GRANDSON CLOSE TO A YEAR OLD ALL ARE SAFE "GOD BLESS YOU ALL
PAYPAL INFO IS
Gtbua@aol.com

ADDRESS IS
GASPARE BUA
58 WARWICK ROAD
ISLAND PARK NY 11558

Good idea, everyone who he has helped with information or whatever else could send at least some. Paypal: personal: gift means you pay the fee. Even $10 can add up ($10 is only 59cent fee.)

Its fast and easy!
I just did it!

Thanks to all that help one of of our members!

PVON

Me too.

Ric

me too

me too

Andy!

It sounds like a horror story! Please keep members informed!

I don't know Gaspare but wish him the best!

PVON

Sent it out today hope it helps to recover.

btt

Paypal made. Well done to all here who have contributed to a fellow collector and friend. I hope between us its something towards getting G's family and his home back together. Good luck friend,see you on here again soon I hope.

btt

I'm in.It's time too pay for that free advice from Gaspare.

power is back on....for those whose homes are still standing

That's good. Hope they can maintain the power.

--dj--Joe

I watch the news, why is this not being covered?

Is it because the US government does not want the world knowing what a struggle it is in NEW YORK CITY !!! right now? Somewhat of a cover up?

We have had no mention of this in the UK news or press since about 3 or 4 days after it happened!

Yes Jon exactly. We want to be known as a super power country. What super power country cant take care of & help it's own tax paying citizens ?

Attention Members:
This is the latest email from Gaspare ---still a very sad situation --We as good friends of Gaspare and his family want to thank all the Members who have donated money or even just your prayers We definitely appreciate all the help he can get Sincerely Mr & Mrs Andy Militarynut
Hi friends, report from ground zero:

20 days after the event and they still tell us in the Village 10 more days before Nat.Gas and Elect.are back! It doesn't matter because so many of us had water in our Elect. meters and failed inspection....
The house is finally disenfected, no mold showing up and smells great. Useing the Generator to run big commercial fans to dry out house. Dehumidifiers not working due to weather. The race is on because it can be water pipe freezing/busting time!
Hopeing house will be dry enough be weeks end to insulate at least. Some friends went to PA. to get me a Hot Water Heater and Gas burner as there are none around here. Some retail stores have opened and no gas lines at least..
I have my breakfast and lunch with the FEMA people now. Good group all around. Nat.Guard doing their thing patroling and keeping looting to minimun..

GDC guys.. I haven't been to PayPal yet but see the eMails.. My God, thank you all so much. My family and I will never forget this.
You all are some of the best people out there.

I have gotten a few emails asking about rings,,,sorry guys, have no reference mat. nor can open attachments yet. I can't even see the military collecting forums as the hospital internet blocks them and eBay.
Also some asked about my collection,,,,I'd say 90% gone. Tunics, some daggers, 15 big riker trays, Holocaust, trunk of some one of a kind foreign voll. material, all reference material, all gone sorry to say. Yes we had a safe house after the last time but nothing was safe as they got flooded too!
My business and motorcycle collection all gone too.....
Thanksgiving soon,,my family all over the place, not sure what we're doing,, but thankful we evacuated and are alive.......

We are alive, and getting well fast too. Got to rustle up some tradesmen and get rebuilding in a couple weeks after dry out.
Thanks again guys, thank you, thank you, God bless you. , Gaspare

here is a link showing some of the damage click on the pictures very sad
[url=/http://www.newsday.com/long-island/towns/sandy-s-impact-on-island-park-1.4209485#17]http://www.newsday.com/long-island/towns/sandy-s-impact-on-island-park-1.4209485#17[/url]

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/video?id=8868531&pid=null

If anyone has been to New Orleans lately, there are still areas that have not been rebuilt after Katrina...

How can this be?

John

I was in NO a few years after the disaster, my cousin had a FEMA contract doing construction/salvage and I went down and helped him out for a while. I also lived in Slidell, very close to NO, for almost a year the year before Katrina.
Devastation was pretty mind boggling. As most are are, the majority of NO is built on a natural flood plain, and the only thing that makes it habitable is a complex series of levies.
This system obviously proved far from fool proof, and it was my understanding that some of the lowest areas were written off as too much of a hazard to consider rebuilding, which makes perfect sense to me. The city is surrounded by water and swamp land, and there are really only 2 ways in and out. The year I was there I rode out a hurricane, Ivan I think, which at the last moment turned towards the FLA panhandle, so we avoided a direct hit, but that was bad enough.
Lived about 20 ft from lake Pontchartrain, damn lake rose up at least 8 ft during the systems approach. Gets mighty personal when you can look up and see those spiral cloud bands that you usually see on radar shots on TV 1,000 miles away.

I went to a walmarts the day before it hit to stock up on batteries, tape, radios, water ect, some of which were very hard to find. They were out of water at most places, I found a stock of it at an office depots of all places. Heading back, I was literally the only person on the highway going that way, and there was a non stop miles long traffic jam of folks headed the other way.
Not being native to the area, that got me to thinking that maybe we should head out too [I was there working on a hot job right in the middle of NO with 5 other guys, and we commuted to work from Slidell, about a 80 mile round trip every day]. We took a vote, and all decided to ride it out - Good thing it wasn't the next year, when Katrina hit. The condos we were staying at didn't fare too well.

But yeah, NO is a poor location for a city. The water table is so low that they don't even bury the dead, all cemeteries there have crypts right on the ground.

BTT Happy Thanksgiving to all! thanks to everyone for their help.

My son n friends made a run to Long Beach L.I. Delivering donated supplies. I'm
Proud of his efforts to help others

Thanks for the Sandy ABC local news link. Devastation. We all know Hurricane Katrina was covered 24/7 for months. This affected more people, and is covered less. At least the local news is on it.

My son just informed me his next "Sandy Relief Run " will be to Lindenhurst L.I.on 12/1/12 he was asking all FaceBook members to donate clothes,food ,baby supplies,hats anything of use.He uses his work truck to deliver so if anyone sees JM Home Improvements it's him.I asked if he's picked up any work out of it his responce was "Dad people need help right now if the work comes later that's OK"

Don't want to under rate the disaster in the east, but I don't think these 2 are all that comparable.
Katrina was a cat 3/4 hurricane, Sandy a 1, so there was quite a bit more brute force wind damage from Katrina. There probably were more people "affected" by Sandy, since it hit such a densely packed area ... But once again, I think the sheer devastation ranging from the coast of Mississippi to Texas, for miles inland, far outweighed the flood damage from Sandy. I know lots of folks lost everything in both, thank god Sandy was not a cat 3 system [might be technically impossible for such a strong system to form so far north].

Coverage is there if you look for it, but true, it is no where near the level of Katrina. The coverage then was centered on NO, 80% of which was submerged, and seemed to grip the nations attention much more, and longer. In most cases, news is news, and yesterdays news doesn't hold relevancy for too long, except for those directly affected.

Report front the front lines:
-reporting from the hospital internet service,,
Well I found out my area was some of the hardest hit,,along with the Rockaways, ConeyIsland,BrightonBeach S.I....67 inches of water high in my house,,,1000s of gallons of water in and out of my home twice!

Finally got to see some TV. Disappointing,,rebuilding?, a joke,,they are still locking gas meters and condeming homes by me. My church served over 1000 Thanksgiving day dinners on the first shift! Many renters are now staying in ripped out aptments/homes,,they aren't paying rent,,but NO heat, insulation, El;ect, Nat.Gas!,,mainly because the owners are absentee landlords and they don't know what to do or how to pay.
I help with neighbors houses every day,,even if just to sweep to keep the flats down! 2families on my block didn't even have toliets after the rip out! We scrounged up 2 from the debris piles and got wax rings and rmounted for them!

So just about 29 days and no idea on my side of town when Elect. coming on! They took the lock off my gas meter this week at least. My buddies and I piped in a Hot Water heater and burner. Patched up some cords and I run the heat inside to help with the drying out process...Hopeing to insulate by the end of next week,,[worried about pipes freezing in the coming weeks!]

Still haven't seen my PayPal acct. but see the email reciepts!,,and have gotten some letters from England, PA.,FL, AZ, KS. , with help for us..... -Guys, thanks so much. This year is so different from last. This year they will not pay for clothes,,we must wash them. And we did, several times, we had seawater and sewage thruout the house, my wife and girls won't wear the clothes. Me,,I wear them a few days and throw them out! So I bought good winter jackets and shoes for the kids and us and paid with PayPal so thats where your money is going so far!, We all thank you all so very much. As I said before,,we will never forget this,,thank you,,God bless you...,Gaspare and family

Thank, Andy.

Dave

"I help with neighbors houses every day,,even if just to sweep to keep the flats down! 2families on my block didn't even have toilets after the rip out! We scrounged up 2 from the debris piles and got wax rings and remounted for them"

My Hats off to G...even when he has nothing, he always helps others. God bless You and your family G

Sepp

What IS the Almighty Govt doing to put their
weight behind getting this soul destroying
mess straightened out.Looks like NOT an awful
lot.My heart bleeds for these poor people.
Seiler (Yank in UK)

The only news I've seen in British papers from New York this past week was a Buzz Lightyear convension parading down the streets, fukin usefull !!?
Well done G man glad your getting a little sorted and helping your neighbours out.

Thanks for your concern I will try to keep everyone posted and again thanks for any help that has been given
Gaspare is a good friend and he appreciates all your prayer and help
Mr & Mrs Militarynut
Andy & Eileen

Good Job Andy! Sometimes just knowing people care
is special!

PVON