Red Cross worker returns from Sandy cleanup

OSHKOSH - One local Red Cross worker just returned from a ten day stint on the East Coast. She says pictures can't show how bad the damage is in some places.

While many of us continue on with our daily routines, for those on the east coast life is at a standstill.

"They're very much in a recovery mode, to some it might be a matter of survival," said Barbara Behling, communications officer for N.E.W. Red Cross.

• Photos: Red Cross workers help Sandy victims

  Neighborhoods have disappeared. Behling says just finding her way through areas affected by Superstorm Sandy was a challenge.

"We literally had to say, there is a boat on top of a green house, drive past that what you think would be about three blocks and then take a left."

Behling rode out the storm on the fifth floor of a Washington, D.C. hotel.  An experience she says was like no other.

"It sounded like the combination of a 747 and a B-52 bomber flying overhead, it was like a whoosh, the noise was amazing."

As of Thursday, more than a half million people were still without power. Almost 6,000 Red Cross workers and volunteers from around the country are serving meals and providing supplies and shelters. Behling says more than 100 of the volunteers are from the eastern half of Wisconsin.

She says Red Cross efforts will continue through at least December and she expects the trip she just returned from won't be her last.

"Where as I am already back, chances are I could be heading back for another two or three week deployment, that's how many needs there are."

She says it will take a long time for lives and life in the wake of Sandy to return to normal. But she says they've already seen good signs from above.

"On the third day we saw sunlight and we saw blue skies and it was like wow, things are going to get better."

Behling says the Red Cross believes the best way to help those affected is to donate money and blood.