The U.S. Senate on Monday approved a $50.5 billion disaster aid package for victims of Superstorm Sandy, three months after the storm destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in coastal New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The 62-36 vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate sends the appropriation measure to President Barack Obama to be signed into law. It narrowly exceeded a 60-vote threshold needed for passage.

Al Jazeera's Cath Turner reports from New York on the storm's human toll.

If you missed Wednesday night's guerilla premiere of academy-award nominated director Josh Fox's new film "Occupy Sandy: A Human Response to the New Realities of Climate Change," you can watch it in its entirety above.

What Action can you take RIGHT NOW?
Join the Occupy Sandy efforts by visiting the website to plug in!
OccupySandy.org
Together we can recover from Hurricane Exxon Mobil
Call Cuomo and tell him to BAN Drilling and Fracking for Natural Gas in NY State! NO MORE FOSSIL FUEL DEVELOPMENT!
(518) 474-8390 or mail:

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

tweet at him here: @NYGovCuomo

Call Bloomberg and urge him to protect public health by halting construction of the Spectra Pipeline! Tell him the not to allow the Rockaway Pipeline to be built! The People want to RebuildGreen. Call NYCHA, show up to pressure board meeting at NYCHA HQ on Dec 5th, 10am, 250 broadway (interoccupy.net/blog/november-27th-first-post-sandy-housing-action-citywide-call-from-nycha-residents/)

(Via OWS)

For the past month we have come together to support and rebuild communities broken by Hurricane Sandy. As Sharon Lerner wrote in the American Prospect, “the storm handed inequality activists an almost eerily perfect illustration of exactly what they see as wrong with our world.”

In this vein, over Thanksgiving Occupy Sandy joined with communities to share over 10,000 meals. Now we begin to come together to connect the dots from the storm, to climate change, to the reckless greed of the 1%-ers at the forefront of the fossil fuel industry.

The work is far from over, so join us. You can check out the Occupy Sandy Relief NYC Facebook page to get started, or follow @OccupySandy on Twitter.

-- from the ‘Your Inbox: Occupied’ team

TONIGHT, Wednesday, November 28, 6:30pm
Occupy Sandy Guerilla Movie Premier with Josh Fox
Mystery Location - Text @ClimateCrime to 23559 or follow #climatecrime
Join academy-award nominated director Josh Fox (Gasland), Occupy Sandy Relief organizers, 350.org, The Other 98%, and The Illuminator for a Guerilla Premiere of Josh Fox’s new short film “Occupy Sandy: A Human Response to the New Realities of Climate Change,” which viscerally shows the damage left behind by the storm, highlights the heroic grassroots efforts of Occupy activists, and the upcoming fight with the fossil fuel industry. Dress warm, bring hot beverages, be prepared to move and to be moved.

TONIGHT, Wednesday, November 28, 9pm
Occupy Sandy Volunteer Appreciation Night
The Bell House, 149 7th Street, Brooklyn(b/w 2nd-3rd Ave)
Take the F/G/R to 4th Ave - 9th St Station
You are cordially invited to kick back and relax for a few hours this week in appreciation of all of your hard work and dedication to Occupy Sandy relief! There will be LIVE dance beats from DJ RiMix as well as surprise musical performances & more! Drink specials and, of course, no cover charge!

DAILY, Volunteer to Clean-out homes in the Rockaways
Sign Up at respondandrebuild.org/volunteer
Help residents clean and remove debris from their houses. You do not need specific skills for this type of work, just a willingness to get dirty and help. Experienced team leaders will guide your work efforts and keep you safe on the job. If you do have experience or skills in construction, demolition, engineering, or environmental assessment, please contact oscleanout@gmail.com.

Continue reading »

http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/
To request aid, text: SANDY to 69866
To offer aid, text: MUTUALAID to 69866

Church of St Luke & St Matthew
520 Clinton av. - Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, NY
(between Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue)

If you're able to help Occupy Sandy in any way at all, please contact them. They've all been working so hard, and the more support they receive, the better for the Sandy victims who are going to continue to need assistance for some time to come.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, the shelters in New York City were bustling with volunteers serving holiday dinners as the arduous recovery continues. 'It's starting to take a toll on people,' says one worker.

LATimes:

"If you come on Staten Island, you come to South Beach, you'll see some things that will twist your stomach a bit," said Farid Kader, 29, a volunteer with Sandy Yellow Team, a relief group that works with Youssef's distribution site and, like many others, spent its Thanksgiving holiday distributing meals around storm-affected areas. "It's starting to take a toll on people. Honestly, until the authorities rebuild things, I don't see myself hanging out with other people."

Kader mentioned the post-storm mold in ruined homes: "A lot of us are getting sick."

On the phone, Matthew Hillyer, a volunteer delivering meals, sounded breathless. "I'm pushing a shopping cart door-to-door," he explained. "After I get done pushing the cart, I'm going to try to hit every house in a 10-block radius."

Hillyer is associated with Occupy Wall Street, which has won plaudits for its storm relief effort, Occupy Sandy. Organizers estimated it served more than 10,000 meals on Thanksgiving.

Another Occupier, Robert Pluma, was also almost too busy to talk. "I'm literally taking my first break in two weeks," Pluma said, politely begging off. "I'm carving a turkey as we speak."