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LES hurricane recovery aided by new community-based volunteer website

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Photo by Jay Fine

BY SAM SPOKONY | A website made to help Lower East Side residents recover and ask for vital donations in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy went online on Tuesday morning.

The site, lowereastside.recovers.org, is the result of volunteer collaborations between Occupy Wall Street and 350.org, an environmental organization.

It allows volunteers to organize in surveying and assessing the massive damage and flooding left throughout the Lower East Side after the hurricane struck on Monday, as well as finding out the specific needs of residents who are still in the flooded areas and are without food or other supplies.

The site also allows community groups to post requests for immediate needs within the neighborhood.

By Tuesday evening, the top request on the site was for donations and volunteers for the building at 80 Rutgers Slip, which is populated by more than 50 senior citizens.

That building, along with scores of others within the Lower East Side — as well as many more throughout the Downtown area — was hit with major indoor flooding on Monday night.

Since then, the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council had been seeking donations of food, water, batteries and other necessities for the elderly residents. Many community members reportedly responded to those requests throughout the day, bringing supplies for the tenants who are trapped, without elevator service or any ability to leave their building.

Donations of those supplies are still being sought and accepted.

As of 5 p.m. on Tuesday, however, the most urgent need at 80 Rutgers was lighting, according to lowereastside.recovers.org.

Organizers are looking for anyone who can lend an electrical generator to the building, as well as flashlights any other lighting supplies.

Two other recovers.org websites have also been created — one for Red Hook in Brooklyn and another for Astoria in Queens.

Recovers.org is a for-profit operation that licenses its software to cities and major organizations that are preparing for disasters, and was founded last year by survivors of a tornado in Massachusetts.

To volunteer, visit lowereastside.recovers.org or call 646-580-7473