Community Corner

Clean Up Continues at Ravaged Multi Service Center

Volunteers from Jewish Organization Nechama have spent the past week cleaning out the Multi Service Center and plan on staying in Hoboken for at least two more weeks.

Hurricane Sandy has heavily damaged Hoboken's community center.

The building's entire ground floor suffered heavy water damage — about three feet of standig water inside the building — destroying numerous files, a day care and multiple offices.

On Friday morning, nearly two weeks after Superstorm Sandy hit Hoboken, volunteers from Jewish organization Nechama were still cleaning out ruined furniture from the Multi Service Center on Second and Grand Streets.

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"It's a mess. It really is," said Rich Ward, the chief financial officer for Hoboken Family Planning, which was located on the multi center's first floor. Hoboken Family Planning lost files, documents and its offices.

The downstairs day care also suffered loss. The flood water — a mix of sewage and the Hudson River — ruined all of the day care's materials and furniture. Anything that got wet will have to be thrown out, said Judy Messina, the day care's director.

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"Very little is being saved," she said.

It's not yet certain where the day care's 98 kids and 26 employees will be housed. The day care has been closed since Sandy hit almost two weeks ago.

"Parents are calling," Messina said. "they want to know where to put the kids."

Messina, who has been the director of the day care for the past five years, said she is working with the city and Mayor Dawn Zimmer to find a temporary location.

Some of the senior center's operations are being run from the second floor of the multi center, said Director of Health and Human Services Leo Pellegrini. The meals on wheels program, which usually runs out of the center as well, has been relocated to Fox Hill, the uptown senior building.

Pellegrini said he couldn't give a time frame for when the center would re-open.

In order to expedite that process, however, Minnesota-based Jewish Disaster Organization Nechama has been working to clean out the center since last week.

Destroying a wooden crib that was soaked in water on Friday morning, Maggie Nelan said things were going well. Nelan, 29, said she had worked disasters before, but this was different.

"It's different because we're in a city," she said. "From the outside everything looks normal, but then you come in and you see that it's really bad."

Nelan had driven in from Delaware to help with the clean up.

Ross Topol, one of Nechama's staffers, came in from Chicago and said that the organization will likely stay in Hoboken to help clean up for another two weeks.

Topol said he is impressed with the way Hoboken has come together.

"I'm really impressed with the community here," he said. "It has been pretty inspiring."


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