FEMA ignoring Deaf communities of Hurricane Sandy victims.
STATEN ISLAND, New York -- Deaf Staten Island victim of
Hurricane Sandy says pleas go unheeded. When police with megaphones rolled through Carol Lazorisak’s
Oakwood Beach neighborhood in the hours before the hurricane thrust ashore, she did not hear their announcement about evacuation help.
In the days after the surge ripped her Tarlton Street home off its foundation, filled it with water to a depth of 5 feet and tossed her shed nearly a block away, she joined the thousands of other dazed victims at
Miller Field in New Dorp, seeking some answers and a measure of comfort.
But for Ms. Lazorisak, who has been Deaf since birth, walking through the bustling relief center was like being in a movie on silent. There were no signs providing information for the
Deaf or directing people to
translation services. She left feeling more isolated than ever.
“I am extremely frustrated because of the lack of
communication, the lack of
help, the lack of
information. I was left lost and in the dark for the first two weeks after Sandy destroyed my home,” said Ms. Lazorisak, as her friend Marybeth Imsho translated from
American Sign Language a service she has provided during virtually every face-to-face meeting with
FEMA or city agencies, and at the borough president’s town hall meeting last month where no interpreter was provided for nearly a dozen Deaf audience members. “My home is going to be demolished by the city in the next week and I need information.”
Carol Lazorisak's Oakwood Beach home was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. Adding to her frustration is the fact that adequate interpreter services from FEMA, the city and at public meetings relating to the disaster have not been made available, says Ms. Lazorisak, who has been Deaf...
Read The Full Story.
