As superstorm Sandy hit the US East Coast, affecting millions of people, an international Sikh forum on Tuesday announced that gurdwaras in the country had been turned into shelter homes for the affected.
The American Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (AGPC) said arrangements had been
made in gurdwaras for providing food, water and shelter to those affected by the storm.
"As the gurdwaras are often situated in large compounds, having enough food and water in stores, we would like to help the needy in this one of the biggest crisis in areas facing the impact of the storm," the AGPC said in a statement issued from Freemont, California.
The Sikh leaders said gurdwaras' management had been asked to store sufficient food as soon as the alarm was sounded for the storm.
Sandy, one of the biggest storms ever to hit the US, battered the coastline of New Jersey, where a large number of Indian families reside, with 80mph winds, pushing sea water up by an unprecedented 13 ft in New York City.
Floods inundated a large number of areas in New York and New Jersey and an explosion at a sub-station on the east side of Manhattan's Midtown left 500,000 people without power.