Months After Storm, a Team of Mennonites Has Stayed to Rebuild

Jabin Botsford/The New York Times
Logan Orpin, left, a crew leader, and Gary Eicher, a volunteer, working in Far Rockaway, Queens, for the Mennonite Disaster Service, a volunteer network of churches helping neighborhoods recover from Hurricane Sandy.

Within days of Hurricane Sandy’s New York landfall, Frank Hoover started coordinating vans full of Mennonites to repair homes ravaged by the storm. His impromptu crews finished their farm chores in Pennsylvania Dutch country in the middle of the night and left for Staten Island or Far Rockaway by 3 a.m. They worked 8 or 10 hours, then drove back to Lancaster County.

Since then, over 1,300 Mennonites have parachuted into the city. Volunteers from the conservative sect of Protestant Christianity that includes the Amish, known for their skillful carpentry (as well as their beards and bonnets), have already returned dozens of low-income, hurricane-struck families to their homes. They have another 80 projects in various stages of rehabilitation.

“We do this in our own community â€" if someone has storm damage, the neighbors all come together and help,” said Mr. Hoover, 57, a long-term volunteer who lives in Lancaster. “We believe the Bible teaches us that we have to share our blessings. I think if God blesses us, we can’t hoard that to ourselves.”

While Mr. Hoover’s volunteers made the round trip in one day at first, the Mennonites have now set up house in temporary quarters, allowing volunteers from as far-off as the Midwest and Canada to stay for days or weeks at a time.

“They are so humble. They are reluctant to ever ask for anything,” said Brad Gair, a representative at the mayor’s NYC Recovery office. “But we finally got it out of them that they were commuting daily from Pennsylvania. That was really not sustainable. Sometimes they were sleeping in the houses they were working on â€" it was winter and there were no utilities.”

On Staten Island, the Mennonites are staying in a defunct Catholic seminary near Midland Beach. In Far Rockaway, behind the First Church of God stands a small cluster of prefabricated barracks on trailer beds. The squat shelters were built by Amish carpenters in Pennsylvania, hitched to trucks and delivered to the church’s gravel parking lot. Inside, unfinished wood bunk beds are dressed in plain white sheets. Other trailers house bathroom and kitchen facilities.

“As long as we offer a place to sleep, a place to shower, and food in their belly, they’re happy,” said John Tolvin, a volunteer from Oregon stationed at Far Rockaway.

The Mennonite crews do an array of tasks, including replacing floors, plumbing and overhauling roofs.

Logan Orpin, 20, came from Wichita, Kan., to Far Rockaway for three weeks. One recent afternoon, he took a break from his work priming and painting walls and ticked off the steps that will let a family confined to two rooms of their house move back into the whole home â€" insulation, drywall, painting, shelving.

“The Lord has blessed me with the construction skills I have, and this is my way of helping those in need,” Mr. Orpin said.

Jabin Botsford/The New York Times Mennonite volunteers are living in Far Rockaway in trailers built by Amish carpenters.

Female Amish volunteers, who are generally assigned to domestic chores, have also been known to pitch in rebuilding roofs and hanging drywall.

Mennonite Disaster Service, the organization coordinating the volunteer response, looks to help those lowest on the economic rungs or with extenuating circumstances. “Most of the ones that we do are special cases: cancer victims, people who are wheelchair-bound, handicapped,” said Bruce Smith, a project director for the service.

Theodora Friscia, a retired nurse, is one of those helped by the Mennonites. Her tiny 1920s bungalow in Midland Beach was nearly destroyed.

“It was an absolute shell,” she said. “I lost everything. Twelve feet of water we had here. I would have had to hire privately and it would have eaten up my pension. And that money I needed to save for when I’m 80 years old. I have no one to fall back on.”

Winston Penner, 72, of Manitoba, Canada, was one of the long-term volunteers who helped fix Ms. Friscia’s home. He worked on her plumbing and electrical work, and replaced the house’s siding.

“I’m not saying we work harder than any other carpenters, but when people are grateful like Thea, it makes it more rewarding,” Mr. Penner said. “It’s just for the joy of helping people out who are in need.”

During the warm months, the Pennsylvania volunteers who live on farms have mostly stayed home to tend the fields, but the temporary housing has allowed more modern Mennonites, not tied to the fields, to come in from farther away. When this year’s harvest is in, around the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, more Amish and Old Order Mennonites will rejoin the rebuilding efforts. This time, they will have a place to stay.

The disaster service has committed to fixing 50 more homes on Staten Island before April. Beyond that, Mr. Smith said he did not see the Mennonites leaving New York anytime soon.

“Long term, you’re looking at anywhere between two to five years here,” he said. “And it doesn’t begin to cover it all. We get more calls every day.”