Drita D’Avanzo is putting her star power to good use: The Mob Wives beauty recently organized a fundraising event in New York City to help those devastated by Superstorm Sandy.

D’Avanzo, a Staten Island native, saw the destruction first-hand after the storm terrorized the East Coast three weeks ago. And she’s seen her hometown largely remain in the shadows of national news coverage, leading residents to dub it the city’s “forgotten borough.”

“I agree. There have been some areas that have been so neglected,” D’Avanzo told Celebuzz. “Nobody is there. Nobody is helping these people. There are people with no homes or only half a home. They have no electric, no gas, there’s nothing. And they’re starving, and they’re freezing, and they’re neglected! It’s crazy. It’s really sad to see.”

The reality star’s hometown was one of the hardest-hit areas, but miraculously, D’Avanzo’s home was spared from any damage.

“I’m lucky. My home is OK. My home is a block away from the ocean, so I really thought my home was going to be completely gone. I took my children, I went to my mother’s, and the whole time I’m there, I thought my house was gone, floating away somewhere. I had so much anxiety. I was so nervous… It was awful.”

Now, she’s doing what she can to help her neighbors and get Staten Island back on its feet. D’Avanzo organized a Sandy fundraiser in New York City this past week — but some skeptics questioned the reality star’s generosity after they realized that VH1 cameras were in tow.

D’Avanzo, meanwhile, openly confirmed to Celebuzz that the cameras were there to capture Sandy’s devastation.

“There was controversy,” said the star, who’s filming Mob Wives’ third season. “[But] how can we not film it? I’m not going to make believe the most devastating thing that has happened, that affected my friends and family, didn’t happen. This is reality, and honestly, Mob Wives is as real as can be… This was very devastating to all of us. It hit home to us on a personal level.”

‘Mob Wives’ Season 3 premieres January 2013 on VH1. 

For the cast of MTV’s Jersey Shore, the Seaside Heights boardwalk was their home. Now, it’s nothing more than a pile of rubble after Superstorm Sandy devastated the East Coast three weeks ago.

Thursday night, dozens of MTV stars came together for the network’s Restore the Shore live fundraising event. One of the many affected by the superstorm was Jersey Shore “meatball” Deena Cortese.

“During the storm I was at my home in New Jersey, which is about 20 minutes from the storm,” the 25-year-old reality TV star told Celebuzz at Thursday night’s MTV fundraiser, Restore the Shore. ”It was pretty bad down there. ”

Restore The Shore aired live from MTV’s Times Square Studio and featured appearances by the cast of Jersey Shore, Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, and One Direction, and performances from Gym Class Heroes and Phillip Phillips.

But at the end of the night, it wasn’t about celebrities or star-studded performances; it was about helping the families and business owners who lost everything.

“I met a girl recently who was working at Casino Pier, had a house in Seaside, and she lost both of them — her job and her house,” said Cortese. “That’s who we’re really trying to raise money for, the people who really need it.”

Text “SHORE” to 85944 to make a $10 donation, or go to RestoreTheShore.mtv.com. 

MTV stars came together Thursday night to help Restore the Shore.

For the cast of the hit reality series Jersey Shore, it was an especially emotional evening, as many of them had seen the devastation left in the wake of Superstorm Sandy first-hand. Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola and her boyfriend/castmate Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, Jr. were among the many personally affected by the storm.

“About 10 blocks away from my house, there were houses gone, in the ocean,” Giancola told Celebuzz. “There’s just foundations; there are no more houses left. There were bodies that were being found in the water. It’s just devastating.”

“My friends and family have lost a lot, so for me, it’s just devastating,” she added.

Seaside Heights, the resort town that Giancola and her Jersey Shore roommates called home for four of the show’s six seasons, was one of the hardest hit areas along the New Jersey coastline. The iconic boardwalk is now in ruins.

“We lived there for four summers, every day… We’re really going to miss that place,” added Ortiz-Magro, Jr. “We want to see it go back to the way it used to be.”

Fans interested in helping Sandy relief efforts can text “SHORE” to 85944 to make a $10 donation, or go to RestoreTheShore.MTV.com.

The Real Housewives of New York City are no strangers to stormy relationships on camera, but like the millions of East Coast residents, they couldn’t escape the wrath of Sandy, and had to take the proper precautions.

Countess LuAnn de Lesseps told Celebuzz she rode out the storm on Long Island, where she has a home.

“I was nervous about being away from my family with my daughter and son,” said de Lesseps. “So we wanted to be together in our house instead of the city.”

And she was well prepared.

“I filled up my bathtub, stocked up on batteries for the flashlights, got a cooler and ice for the freezer to preserve food,” she said.

But the best storm survival purchase was a battery-operated radio.

“My biggest asset was my battery-powered radio. I was able to be connected to the outside world. I don’t remember the last time I fell asleep to the radio until now.

“We played Scrabble and cards. And I have a gas stove so we made some pasta and just listened to the radio.”

About 2.7 million customers remained without power Saturday across 15 states and the District of Columbia since Sandy made landfall Oct. 29.

“Just before the storm we walked around Sag Harbor and the beach was on the street and I had never seen the ocean like that before,” de Lesseps recalled. “It was unbelievable. The waves were up to the houses before the storm even hit. It was like doom looming in the air.

“I was scared because of the winds. That when the most damage happens with tree limbs falling, things flying, I was worried parts of the house would come off.”

Luckily the only damage she faced was one fallen tree.

De Lesseps, her boyfriend Jacques Azoulay, and her teenage children Victoria and Noel spent three days on Long Island until Friday when she returned to her Upper West Side apartment.

“I came into the city to charge my phone,” she said with a laugh.

“I have electricity. And the city is picking up now. But it’s so eerie below 37th Street because nobody has power. It’s weird.”

As of Saturday, power had been restored to 60 percent of residents, according to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Housewives co-star Ramona Singer, along with her husband Mario and daughter Avery, took shelter from the storm in their Upper East Side apartment.

“I’m very lucky, so many people lost so much,” she told Celebuzz. “My assistant lives in Hoboken [New Jersey] and a tree fell into her bedroom.

“We are so fortunate we came out unscathed.”

The day before the storm, Singer bought supplies to last for the week, she said.

“I went shopping not knowing what to expect and I bought enough for four days. I even rented four movies!”

The day the Sandy struck, the veteran NYC housewife and her daughter actually spent the day outside before taking cover, she said.

Now, Singer says The Big Apple is getting back to normal.

“I just took the subway for the first time.”

On Friday night, NBC aired an hour-long telethon, “Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together,” to raise money for the American Red Cross that included performances from New Jersey natives Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi, New Yorker Billy Joel, Staten Island native Christina Aguilera, and Sting.