Wall St. protesters brave wintry blast

A bone-chilling cold descended on Occupy Wall Street protesters Saturday, bringing wet, driving snow and slush that stuck to tents and tarpaulins, seeping into virtually every corner of Zuccotti Park.

"Pouring rain, falling snow, ain't no way we're gonna go," chanted Michael Rodriguez, 24, a self-employed real estate agent from the Bronx, and Jason Currier, 35, a self-employed arborist from Alaska, as they tramped one rousing circuit of the park.

"We're just trying to keep people's morale up," Currier said, shortly before a burst of thunder-snow.

One day after Mayor Michael Bloomberg, citing fire risks, ordered generators and fuel confiscated from the lower Manhattan plaza, protesters faced a wintry blast as snow began falling shortly before noon.

Donations poured in from first light to nightfall -- gifts that included cold hard cash.

Organizers Friday released an accounting of finances showing the movement had $400,000 cash on hand as of Oct. 18, having spent $55,000, mainly on food, medical care, laundry and communications.

The money, almost entirely public donations, is being directed via a not-for-profit, the Alliance for Global Justice and the nycga.net website. Saturday, coordinators said the total was closer to $500,000.

Donations of commodities are dropped off daily at the park, where protesters marked Day 43 Saturday.

Murat Eyuboglu, a professional photographer from the Upper West Side, stopped by to drop off a new, 25F-rated sleeping bag and waterproof mattress. "It's just $40 for me and these people really need things now," he said.

Kent Gifford, 46, a chef living in Hell's Kitchen and Kuwait war veteran, cooks three times a week for the occupiers. He dropped off tumblers that included vegetable hummus and Cuban-style vegetable stew with brown rice.

"It's important people stay healthy," he said, explaining he wanted the movement to last. "I work three jobs and only just make ends meet. I've done everything right in life in terms of a military career, retraining, scholarships, putting myself through pastry school and I'm just barely keeping my head above water."

Emerging from a multicolored patchwork of tents and tarpaulins, Pushy Collins, 23, of Queens sported an oversized plastic bag with armholes over his clothes -- attire du jour for many protesters.

Collins was damp, but warm. "Except for my hands -- there's four pairs of handwarmers in here," he gestured inside glove-swathed hands. He's been at Zuccotti Park for five weeks and, despite the early blast of winter, plans to stay -- returning home occasionally to shower.

As the mercury dipped into the 30s, steady rain turned to snow, with winds gusting up to 20 mph and heavy slush inundating the park.

But the discomfort did not dampen resolve to keep the focus on economic disparity.

Michael Ingios, 38, and friend Beth Sabino, 44, both musicians from upstate Ithaca, drove south at 3 a.m. to join the occupation Saturday for the first time. Sabino said the pair felt strongly about economic inequality in the country and the way that issue "bleeds" into others. They cited an estimated 50 million Americans without health care, those incarcerated in a for-profit prison system and racism.

"We've been wanting to come but Scott Olsen was probably the latest catalyst," Ingios said, referring to the Iraq war veteran critically injured during police action at an Occupy camp in Oakland, Calif., last week.

If anything, authorities' actions over the past week appeared to steel protesters' sense of common cause. "We are all Scott Olsen" slogans mushroomed via Twitter shortly after the Oakland action.

Long Island natives Tom and Cathleen Alexander, formerly of Bay Shore and Bayport, drove four hours from Rhode Island on Friday specifically to see the occupation for themselves. "I feel they're making a sacrifice to stay here and I wanted to show my support," said Cathleen Alexander, 54, a health insurance adviser.

Protest organizers said Bloomberg's order to remove generators and fuel, executed early Friday by the FDNY, has not dampened spirits. Battery-powered generators, charged off-site and brought in Saturday enabled protesters to charge cellphones, run data streams and disseminate messages via social media -- the mechanism credited with the movement's success to date.

Outreach coordinator Ronny Nunez, 24, a Harlem resident who works as a teacher's aide with special needs children in the Bronx, said those at Zuccotti Park knew the snow was coming and didn't flinch.

"There is a serious ambition in the camp to outlast the winter. People at the camp know they have the resolve it will take -- all that's left is to prove it to the world, so we'll take it day by day."