Group forms to help Bux-mont Sandy victims

Last weekend won’t be the end of efforts by a group of local people who organized on Facebook and took part last weekend in efforts to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

“I can’t answer ‘what’s next?’ right now, but I can tell you there is a next,” Paul Dziewisz, who started the Bux-Mont Hurricane Sandy Cleanup Team, wrote in a Facebook posting Sunday night.

That posting came exactly 100 hours after the initial one asking for people to join in and help with the cleanup in the local area over the weekend, he said.

“By Thursday mid-morning I had 30 people in this group. By the evening 80 ... and 100 ... and 150 ... and so on,” Dziewisz wrote.

As of midday Nov. 7, there were 328 members.

On Saturday, Nov. 3, groups of members worked in the Central Bucks and Upper Bucks areas.

The Upper Bucks group included about 10 people, Dan Bencsik, owner of Bux- Mont Awards in Sellersville and Lansdale, said.

“We tried to identify people in the area [in need of help] through another Facebook page I had created,” Bencsik said.

,Q fiYH houUV, WhH JUouS wHQW Wo fiYH hoPHV LQ SHOOersville, including ones in the Drunkenmiller Park and Farmer’s Lane areas and cleaned up seven fallen trees, he said.

“It was a small crew, but it got a lot of work done in a short amount of time,” Bencsik said.

One of the places the crew worked was at the Sellersville home that Matt Branning, a BuxMont Awards employee, his mother and two brothers share.

“Our place was nailed. A bunch of big trees came down in the backyard,” Branning said.

Sparking could be seen at damaged electrical equipment in the area, he said.

“EPbHUV wHUH flyLQJ DOO over the place,” Branning said.

“It was just brutally cold at night, all week, without a generator,” he said. “The shed was sticking straight up in the air. The lawn mower was upside down. bad.”

For two of the nights the power was out, his sister and her children joined the other family members at the home before returning to Perkasie after their electricity was restored, Branning said.

It was Sunday night, Nov. 4, before the electric came back on at the Sellersville home, he said.

“vou forget the simple things you take for granted, that’s for sure,” Branning said the following day.

The Bux-Mont Hurricane Sandy Cleanup Team mem-

It was bHUV “wHUH IDVW DQd HIfiFLHQW and very nice people,” Branning said. “I tried to offer them a little bit of money. They wouldn’t take it.”

On Sunday, Nov. 4, team members helped out at the emergency shelter at Palisades High School.

On the afternoon of Nov. 7, Dziewisz posted that teams were being planned for Central Bucks and the New Jersey shore areas Nov. 10 and 11.

“Let’s rally for another big effort this weekend. This nor’easter is likely going to cause tree, branch and power issues,” he wrote.