Wading Deep Waters

"Two weekends after Hurricane Sandy, a friend convinced to me to volunteer in Breezy Point for one day.  We spent the whole day clearing basements and first floors homes which had incurred severe flooding. Every last box and trinket needed to be thrown away and massive piles of furniture, clothing, paperwork, carpeting, and refrigerators lined every block.  I grieved for the loss of a lifetime of belongings now gone. Everything, soaked in salt water and disheveled by the storm, once a pillar for the identity of these people, had been transformed into meaningless, molding, crumbling material.

The video and photographs within are a small collection of moments and materials I gathered while volunteering in the Rockaways." - Andrew Michael Ellis, Director