Nassau collecting supplies to aid Hurricane Harvey recovery

Noah Manskar
A Texas National Guardsman carries a resident from her flooded home following Hurricane Harvey in Houston on Sunday. (Photo by Lt. Zachary West/Air National Guard)

Nassau County officials and nonprofit groups are collecting supplies to help victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana, officials said Tuesday.

Nassau’s Office of Emergency Management is working with local nonprofit groups, including Island Harvest, the Health and Welfare Council for Long Island, the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army, to send emergency supplies and personnel to the heavily flooded areas the hurricane hit, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano said.

Residents can donate supplies at three Island Harvest sites starting Wednesday and at four county parks starting Thursday.

“This is our chance to help fellow Americans whose lives have been uprooted,” Mangano said in a statement.

The most needed items include “ready-to-eat” and “shelf-stable” foods such as peanut butter and soup; bottled water; bleach and other cleaning supplies; and hygiene items such as toothbrushes and soap, Randi Shubin Dresner, the president and CEO of the Bethpage-based food bank Island Harvest, said in a statement.

A Mangano spokeswoman said no county workers or first responders are yet being deployed to aid recovery efforts in Texas, where Hurricane Harvey dropped 50 inches of rain, killing 30 people and displacing thousands.

But officials are “ready, willing and able to assist any endangered jurisdiction in Texas” if help is requested, the Office of Emergency Management said in a statement, noting the help Nassau received after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Island Harvest is also collecting money that will go directly to hurricane recovery efforts, the group said Tuesday.

“Food banks work side by side with first-responders on the front lines providing food and other essential items to people impacted by a disaster,” Dresner said.

Hurricane Harvey, the first major hurricane to hit the U.S. since 2005, has turned streets into lakes, destroyed homes and set a new record for rainfall in the continental U.S. — 51.88 inches, according to media reports. The storm, now a tropical storm, slammed much of southeast Texas earlier this week and started to drench southwest Louisiana early Wednesday morning, The New York Times reported.

Nassau’s drive for supplies followed calls from candidates for county executive for the county to send resources and first responders to aid rescue and recovery efforts.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio sent a contingent of firefighters and police to help, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo deployed 104 Air National Guard personnel.

The Town of Oyster Bay said Wednesday that it would also collect supplies for Island Harvest at four town facilities and Massapequa Park Village Hall.

U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) is accepting donations at his offices in Huntington and Queens. The City of Long Beach is doing the same through its auxiliary police department and Fire Department.

The supply collection sites include:

Island Harvest (starting Wednesday, Aug. 30, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

  • Island Harvest Food Bank, 15 Grumman Road, West, Suite 15450, Bethpage
  • Hauppauge Distribution Center, 40 Marcus Blvd., Hauppauge
  • Uniondale Distribution Center, 875 Jerusalem Ave., Uniondale (at the A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility)

Nassau County parks (starting Thursday, Aug. 31)

  • Christopher Morley Park Administration Building from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., 500 Searingtown Road, Roslyn
  • Eisenhower Park golf range from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., 1899 Park Blvd., East Meadow
  • Cedar Creek Park Administration Building from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., 3340 Merrick Road, Seaford
  • Grant Park Administration Building from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., 1625 Broadway, Hewlett

Town of Oyster Bay (starting Thursday, Aug. 31)

  • Oyster Bay Town Hall North, 54 Audrey Ave., Oyster Bay
  • Oyster Bay Town Hall South, 977 Hicksville Road, Massapequa
  • Town of Oyster Bay Hicksville Athletic Center, 167 S. Broadway, Hicksville
  • Town of Oyster Bay Ice Skating Center, 1001 Stewart Ave., Bethpage
  • Massapequa Park Village Hall, 151 Front St., Massapequa Park

Rep. Tom Suozzi’s offices

  • 478A Park Ave., Huntington
  • 250-02 Northern Blvd., Little Neck (open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday) 

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