It ain’t over yet

It ain’t pretty. In her cruelty, Hurricane Sandy notably upped the amount of US residents without liveable conditions. Then, a second storm hit the east coast, this time with snow and real cold. “They all got smashed by Sandy, then last night it started snowing,” says Dion Agius, who’s currently in Maine. “Down there in New York people are homeless, no power, no fresh water, and then it’s snowing, wet and raining with crazy winds. Obviously a lot of the hotels have opened up their doors, but because there’s so many people, there’s big problems housing everyone. Because the coast was so damaged, the whole surf community was hit really hard. There’s houses blocks and blocks back from the beach that are four foot under water.”

Some of the more common scenarios are hard to imagine. Like, some Jersey residents being given 90 minutes to collect what they can from their ravaged homes, then being told by the national guard that they mightn’t be able to return for up to eight months. Yup, that kinda stuff is really happening.

Luckily, there’s people there trying to pick up the pieces. One of them is surfer Jon Rose whose organisation, Water For Waves (W4W), is on the ground bringing in supplies, coordinating efforts, setting up receiving and distribution networks, formulating a long term recuperation plan. See photos in the slider above (all shots by DJ Struntz).

Under the wing of W4W, Dion’s company, Epokhe, are also helping. They’ve set up a charity sub-site and, to encourage donations, are offering 40 pairs of sunglasses to those who donate over $100. That’s a $220 pair of shades, for a $100 donation. All money donated goes straight into the Hurricane Sandy Relief Initiative. And that ain’t all. Dion is also partnering with his surfboard sponsor, SUPERbrand, to offer two signature boards. The first US citizen and first Oz citizen to email Dion and commit to a $600 donation will each scoop one of these boards. You can get him at [email protected] Again, all proceeds straight to the relief.

You can donate whatever you want to over here.

It all helps.