Underwear, not shirts or pants, needed on Staten Island, official pleads

Seth Wenig / AP

A sign directs people to a polling site in a school that also serves as a donation site for victims of Superstorm Sandy in the Midland Beach section of Staten Island, N.Y., on Tuesday.

Hundreds of families on the south shore of Staten Island, one of the areas hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy, have received more than enough donations of most kinds of clothing but are in desperate need of underwear, the borough president said Tuesday.

"What we do need right now ... is underwear. Undergarments for children and adults," Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro told "Good Day New York," a local TV program on Fox. "That's what we need. That's what we're in desperate need of."

"It's like a third world nation," he said of the destruction on the island's south shore.

Donation centers have had to stop taking shirts and pants because of a deluge of those items, Molinaro added. "I have a warehouse full of clothing," he said.

Molinaro added that many families are refusing to leave their damaged homes due to fears of looting, even with the danger of a nor'easter on the horizon.

Molinaro said he would be working to convince those people to get to shelters. "I've got to get them out of their homes by tonight," he said.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday said that police would be urging some areas along Staten Island's southern shore to evacuate before Wednesday's forecast arrival of the nor'easter.

Molinaro also had nothing but praise for the relief effort, after initially ripping into the American Red Cross for not getting donations to the area for four days.

At the end of the long interview, Molinaro reiterated his major plea, urging donations to be taken to Miller Field, a former military air base on the island.

"We do need undergarments, badly," he said.

Sandy: How to help the victims

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