In the face of dangerous extreme weather events, local organizations and informal groups of volunteers often play an important role in both immediate response and longer-term recovery efforts. Everyday citizens are also instrumental in preparedness and community resiliency. Part of a broader team study of climate change and social resilience in cities, this paper draws upon interviews, ethnographic data, and governmental and NGO reports - primarily from the New York City area following Hurricane Sandy - to examine how many such efforts come together and play out. I show that many communities hard-hit by Sandy and other disasters were significantly aided by locally organized and informal responses, often from groups that previously had nothing to do with emergency preparedness (community centers, businesses, neighborhood associations, and activist groups like Occupy), yet often in ways that compliment or even fill in for state actors. I also examine how the experience of the event and response then shape further local organizing, planning, and attitudes in affected regions. The paper argues not only that local and informal responses are an important aspect of the human geography of disasters themselves, but provide guides to building more physically and socially resilient communities for the future.