For four days now, Nicole Moriarty has been pumping water out of her Rockaway basement.
Now, she’s wondering, what’s the use.
“In a couple of hours, it’s coming back again,” she said.
To say Moriarty is frustrated over the situation left by the wrecking ball known as superstorm Sandy is an understatement.
“Where’s the help for us?” said Moriarty, 35, a mother of 1- and 2-year-olds whose Beach 137th Street home was flooded.
But her disappointment in the city’s response to her ravaged Rockaways neighborhood was not enough to keep her from helping others displaced by the storm.
Moriarty, an assistant principal at a school in Mineola, LI, said she was having a difficult time understanding the depth of the disaster until she started helping people who were even worse off, including a child who hadn’t eaten in three days.
Moriarty was volunteering at St. Francis de Sales Church, handing out canned food and blankets.
She joined church staffers in a mass appeal for flashlights, batteries, work boots and hot food.
“Once we assess what the community needs, we post it on Facebook, and it spreads like wildfire,” she said. “We’re grateful for all the support we’re getting.”
She just wishes she could get more from elected officials.
“Where’s the assistance we need from our government?” Moriarty said. “We need transportation. We need generators.”
Even as Moriarty, 35, donated her time to assist others, she could not put aside her own woes.
“We’re having problems with our sewer system now,” said Moriarty, who was staying with relatives. “The toilets are backing up all over the place.”
Moriarty said she’s not ready to return to her home, because it smells like petroleum and she’s worried about her children getting infections from the sewage and debris.