New round of snow, storms leaves local woman ready to 'hunker down' in Sandy relief effort

Peggy Wolfe of Worthington is a retired registered nurse and a volunteer with the American Red Cross. She is currently on a two-week deployment to help in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

She is serving as a nurse in the health clinic in an ARC shelter housed in a high school in Hopatcong, New Jersey.

Wolfe has been sharing her experience with Greene County Daily World readers but with power lines down and no internet access, communication has been difficult.

In the middle of the afternoon on Wednesday, yet another storm was predicted to hit the area. Around 3:30 p.m., she was able to make a call and she left the following message:

"Things are safe here, everybody's tucked in. We're in what the Red Cross calls a 'hunker down.' Everybody's staying put wherever they're at and it is snowing in New Jersey!

"It doesn't seem to be sticking much, it's more flurries, little dancing snowflakes everywhere, and it's just gray.

"Who knows as temperatures start to drop whether some of this will start to stick or not.

"We're definitely seeing a rise in acuity in the clinic. Hospitals are overflowing with patients and so the shelters are starting to see, I might have said this yesterday, but even last night, we had more of an increase in diabetics with issues."

Concerning donations, she said the shelter is in need of higher protein, less carbohydrate foods for diabetics, vitamins, fruits and vegetables.

"Other than that, everybody's kind of in a survival mode right now, especially to see how this storm plays out. The weather's supposed to be up to 60 degrees on Sunday and we're all very much looking forward to that, and sunshine.

"So we'll just get through this storm and we should start to get better. But, right now, there's very little effort to restore power in the area that I'm in.

"I don't know where they're all at (crews working on power lines), maybe on the Jersey shore, but there's still a lot of people here without power.

"And there's still no internet.

"We're still working on generator power. And hopefully we don't run out of fuel.

"So that's all I have to report today."

After the storm passed through, she was able to send out her first written message in the middle of the day on Thursday:

"Have brief access to internet, so will tell you the latest. We did get a storm last night, and were on 'hunker down' mode. I was at the hotel when it was called, so we stayed here (at the hotel), and the poor day nurses were stuck there (in the shelter) for 24 hours. They (ARC) ordered us not to travel on the roads, which were very icy, but are now clear. Guilt? A little, but they were able to get some rest too, and so was I. Got at least 4 1/2 hours. Will be going back to the shelter tonight (Thursday). We went shopping today for supplies for the diabetics, as a lot of the food is high carbs. The pharmacist at Target donated boxes of protein bars, and the store manager saw us and offered us whatever we needed! Incredible altruism. We did get two or three inches of snow, which is rapidly melting as the temp is up to about 45. Hotel is getting some power restored, and this is first day of internet, which is on and off. I'm good. Lovely co-volunteers."