Norway woman helps victims

Photo:

RELIEF EFFORT — Ellen Veazey, a Norway resident, unloads relief supplies from a Red Cross truck in New Jersey, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, one of the worst storms to hit the east coast. Veazey has been in New Jersey since last Thursday and is volunteering for a two-week stint. Wayne Holderried, another volunteer from New Sharon, works behind her.

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — "I'm brain-dead because I'm tired," says Ellen Veazey, speaking over the phone from a warehouse in New Brunswick, NJ.

She has a right to be tired –  since last Thursday, Veazey, a Norway resident, has been loading trucks and delivering supplies to victims of Hurricane Sandy as a volunteer for the American Red Cross.

Veazey is one of at least 18 Red Cross volunteers from Maine who have been deployed to areas of New York and New Jersey damaged by the storm.

Sandy, one of the worst storms to hit the east coast, left a trail of destruction along the mid-Atlantic, leaving thousands homeless and millions without power.

In the interior of the state, where Veazey is based, the storm took down trees and power lines, snarling traffic and shutting down roads.

Gradually, the situation is getting better, Veazey says – power is coming back on and streets are being cleared.

But on the coast, where Sandy hit with full force, things are much worse.

"It's really terrible there," Veazey reports. "I think it will be long, long time before they get straightened out ... people lost everything."

Veazey says that people are really struggling in the aftermath of the storm. Even if their homes still remain, their belongings are destroyed and there is still no power.

For some of the poorer residents of the coast, the storm has been particularly devastating, Veazey says.

She says she delivered supplies to an Atlantic City convention center, hastily converted into a shelter for hundreds of people.

"It's very sad. It's ... set up very nicely with cots and everything, but still, they don't have any place to go," she says.

Now, with cold weather setting in, the situation is becoming even more dangerous, Veazey says. People without power also don't have heat. People who lost everything don't have warm clothes.

The scale of the relief effort, however, is huge, Veazey says. Things are gradually getting better and people from every state and all walks of life are stepping in to lend a hand.

Veazey has signed on for for a two-week volunteer stint, but says the region will continue to require help for a lot longer than that.

She encourages people who want to help victims of Sandy to donate to the Red Cross or other groups involved in the relief effort.