Upstate group sends help for LI Sandy victims

A group of residents from upstate Jefferson County say they never forgot the help Nassau gave them during a devastating ice storm 15 years ago and are moving to repay the debt.

In January 1998, after a major storm battered the Northeast with several inches of ice and devastated parts of Jefferson County, 20 volunteer fire departments from Nassau sent equipment and firefighters to help.

This month, Jefferson residents from the Northern New York Community Foundation sent $3,000 they had collected privately to the Nassau Hurricane Recovery Fund, which was set up to help local residents who took the heaviest financial hit from superstorm Sandy.

"We never forget," said David Shampine, a Jefferson resident and a reporter with the Watertown Daily Times. "When we heard about the damage in Nassau County, we immediately remembered what they all did for us in 1998, and we wanted to pay it back."

Just before Christmas, members of the foundation and another local organization formed after the ice storm, also sent a loaded box truck to the City of Long Beach Fire Department.

Long Beach Fire Chief Richard Corbett said the truck contained "much needed items," such as paper towels, cleaning products, water and sodas for volunteers doing cleanup work. Sid Cassese