Post-Hurricane Sandy Citizen Engagement Project

About the Program

Category: Risk and Emergency Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2013

Following the hurricane on Long Island that left thousands of Suffolk County residents with devastating loss, Suffolk County’s Constituent Affairs unit, in conjunction with Performance Management, sought to capitalize on FEMA’s Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC’s) to engage suffering families in additional resources and opportunities available through County government. Multi-department teams were assembled that included representatives from Department of Social Services, Labor, Information Technology, Health, Economic Development and Aging to meet with residents and link them to additional available County resources. Each resident touched by the County was tracked through an intake form and then a team of Constituent engagement coordinators called each person following their visit to ensure that they accessed needed resources and to answer emerging questions related to the aftermath of Sandy. County staff met and followed up with 2,861 residents from Suffolk County who visited the Disaster Recovery Centers and were in need. County resources were deployed, particularly in regard to food stamp replacement, employment disruption, assistance for the elderly and cleanup efforts. In the process of assisting Suffolk’s residents made vulnerable from the storm, citizen participation and understanding of County government was exponentially enhanced and the ability to bring resources to those made hard to reach by homelessness, electrical loss and displacement was reinforced.