The morn­ing after Hur­ri­cane Sandy hit the East Coast, leav­ing in its wake severe dam­age and more than 100 deaths, mem­bers of Occu­py Wall Street hit the streets. Vol­un­teers went out into New York City neigh­bor­hoods to dis­trib­ute food and aid.

But while Occupy Sandy was formed in response to a crisis, it’s about more than immediate disaster relief. When the blind destruction of Hurricane Sandy gave way to a starkly unequal recovery, it exposed New York’s systemic inequalities.

The impromp­tu relief orga­ni­za­tion that result­ed, dubbed Occu­py Sandy, filled in the gaps left by FEMA, the Red Cross and offi­cial city ​“restora­tion cen­ters,” none of which had a strong pres­ence in the affect­ed com­mu­ni­ties, accord­ing to report­ing by The Nation’s Alli­son Kilken­ny and others.

So Occu­py Sandy took the reins, recruit­ing thou­sands of vol­un­teers and pro­vid­ing tens of thou­sands of meals. Its effec­tive­ness was due in large part to the Occu­py ethos: rather than a top-down relief effort, vol­un­teers asked com­mu­ni­ties what they need­ed and then repur­posed exist­ing net­works to pro­vide it. Occu­py Sandy used church­es and oth­er com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions to get food, water and rebuild­ing mate­ri­als to those who need­ed them as quick­ly as pos­si­ble. It also retooled Amazon’s wed­ding reg­istry sys­tem into a wish list for relief sup­plies, from space heaters to hygiene prod­ucts — which drew more than $700,000 worth of donations.

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But while Occu­py Sandy was formed in response to a cri­sis, it’s about more than imme­di­ate dis­as­ter relief. When the blind destruc­tion of Hur­ri­cane Sandy gave way to a stark­ly unequal recov­ery, it exposed New York’s sys­temic inequal­i­ties. The well-off bounced back from the storm quick­ly, hir­ing assis­tance to rebuild, while poor­er res­i­dents were left to fend for them­selves. Occu­py Sandy vol­un­teers believe the city doesn’t have to work that way.

The Occu­piers plan to con­vert the net­works forged dur­ing the dis­as­ter into hubs of orga­niz­ing around broad­er issues exposed and exac­er­bat­ed by the storm, such as lack of afford­able hous­ing, pover­ty, home­less­ness and inequal­i­ty. Occu­py Sandy’s legal team has already begun to edu­cate res­i­dents on how to pre­vent fore­clo­sures and get food stamps, and the group plans to orga­nize res­i­dents of Red Hook to pres­sure the New York City Hous­ing Author­i­ty to give pub­lic hous­ing res­i­dents a two-month rent cred­it to help recov­ery. So far, NYCA has offered a rent cred­it cov­er­ing only days with­out essen­tial services.

Occu­py Sandy is a mod­el for pro­gres­sive orga­niz­ing: a bot­tom-up effort to staunch the bleed­ing, fol­lowed by a long-term move­ment for sys­temic change to pre­vent future dis­as­ters from cut­ting as deep.