New York Sanitation workers remove debris in the Midland Beach neighborhood of Staten Island. (Chad Rachman/New York Post)
Marines invaded Staten Island today, put down their guns and picked up shovels to help devastated residents dig out from Hurricane Sandy’s massive carnage.
Hard-nosed Marines said they were stunned to see the level of devastation in the island’s hardest hit neighborhoods.
“I can’t believe some of the destruction,” said Capt. Eric Flanagan. “It’s bad, but I had no idea it’s this bad.”
Fifty Marines, armed with shovels, axes, chainsaws and hammers, attacked Midland Beach, with the Herculean job of cleaning brush and debris.
Diane Prisinzano, 61, whose house was nearly wiped out by Sandy, said she was grateful for any help she could get. She spray painted “FEMA help, need FEMA:” on the side of her house.
“I never thought I’d see Marines march down my block,” she said.
Garbage piled up eight to 10 feet in some of Staten Island’s most damaged neighborhoods and Marines worked fast to get the debris under control.
“With [another] storm coming on Wednesday, we don’t need garbage flying around,” said local resident Lukas Paulo, 26. “More people could get hurt.”
The enemy packed a devastating stink today, but the uniformed fighting men and women were more than happy to pitch in to fight the garbage.
“Truthfully, it’s an honor to be here and pick up trash,” said Navy corpsman Roy Teague.
“Lots of people think that’s lesser man’s work, but that’s not true. We’re here to help people return to normalcy.”
Additional reporting by David K. Li and Leonard Greene