Knicks center Tyson Chandler did yeoman’s work in Brooklyn on Monday, with a career-high 28 points in the makeup game against the Nets from Hurricane Sandy’s Nov. 1 washout.
But Chandler is doing his best work in Queens, on the devastated Rockaway peninsula.
Chandler and his wife, Kimberly, are picking up where they left off in New Orleans when they were major benefactors helping residents after Hurricane Katrina.
The Chandlers have set up their own relief organization, Rebound for Rockaway, to help the battered peninsula surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and Jamaica Bay. The Chandlers have made a handful of visits to a place they never heard of before Hurricane Sandy and will make another foray this weekend to deliver relief supplies.
“It reminded me so much of New Orleans walking the grounds, talking to the people,’’ Chandler told The Post. “It was so familiar. It was everything we had seen in New Orleans.’’
Chandler was obtained by the Hornets in 2006, one year after Katrina. The suffering had continued, even if media attention had not. So many lives are returning to normal after the storm, but not in places like Far Rockaway, Rockaway, Belle Harbor and Breezy Point — the peninsula’s four neighborhoods.
“A lot of times, out of sight, out of mind,’’ Chandler said. “If you’re not seeing the devastation or reading about it, it leaves your mind. I dealt with that in New Orleans. Once the TV cameras shut down and leave, people forget about people in those areas. Some do their good deed and leave, but those people have to live their life, still fighting every day. We’ll continue to go down there and help as much as we can.’’
In New Orleans, Kimberly Chandler got wives of Hornets players to donate money and unused items from their houses. Tyson donated money for every rebound. Chandler is also working with a coalition of athletes for hurricane donations via Diapers.com.
“The thing that struck me the most [in Rockaway] was how literally everything these people own was completely taken away by the storm and they are left with nothing,’’ Kimberly Chandler said. “Hearing how people are still living in their apartments … on the 17th day [after the hurricane], a lot of families started getting electricity. On that first day, once the lights came on, they saw how they were living. The children and babies were sleeping on molded mattresses. They had no idea because it was too dark. So mattresses are in the forefront of what we need.’’
Rockaway’s fabled boardwalk was destroyed, its debris strewn all over town.
“It was unbelievable,’’ said Kimberly, who will pitch in Friday at a Brooklyn outreach event called WPIX Cares. “We heard of a gentleman who was living with part of the boardwalk in his living room.’’