Alec Baldwin helps fellow New Yorkers recover from Sandy

>> a place where the water rises, the power goes out, that makes you just like everybody else . those who can try to help and because you never know who you're going to meet on the streets of new york , here's what happened when we met up with alec baldwin and his wife. that encounter from nbc's natalie morales .

>> reporter: we're used to seeing alec baldwin like this.

>> it's good to see you back at work.

>> reporter: or as the popular target of the tabloids. but that's not how a lot of new yorkers know him. they know him as their neighbor. he and his wife live in lower manhattan , an area that has spent the week in darkness.

>> as you can see, there's no power here in the east village anywhere. so in our building, you can assume that people who are elderly can't go up and down the stairs to get meals, water, any prescriptions, walk their dogs.

>> reporter: they wanted to help their neighbors but not intrude on them. so they did it out of the sight of cameras.

>> so we volunteered to come today to stand by and see if we can be of any help to them. we left to go to a hotel because we can't take our dogs up -- we didn't want to take them up and down 12 flights of stairs.

>> reporter: even as the storm approached new york city , the photographers who normally dogged baldwin caught him walking his dog. no raincoat, no umbrella.

>> the day aft approaching storm was very warm and there wasn't a lot of rain. you can see, there's scaffolding up in front of buildings and scaffolding of any size on buildings in manhattan becomes a good dog run. been doing a lot of scaffolding runs.

>> reporter: this is not the first time baldwin has volunteered during a hurricane. during katrina in august 2005 , he went to kovington, louisiana, to work with habitat for humanity . this time around, when not volunteering, the baldwins have found time for one of their favorite activities, tweeting.

>> we were doing a lot with twitter because we lost power. we don't tend to watch a lot of tv ourselves.

>> except brian williams .

>> of course, brian williams .

>> new york is not all rich people who are in these very, very lofty professions and everything. new york is a lot of people who live paycheck to paycheck and they're not going to get a paycheck this week.

>> reporter: born in long island, baldwin is a new yorker who loves new yorkers.

>> it's weird. it's like new yorkers are very flynn-teethed people. and if you're a new yorker, everybody gives each other five feet of space on the street. but at the same time, they're fiercely proud to be from new york . and part of that is to care for people in a way that we can. but apropos of people being nice to each other, i think i was very nice to you these last 24 hours .

>> i think new yorkers really do love each other. the moment something goes wrong, we fight for each other fiercely.

>> just one couple, one guy with a story like so