Thank goodness Gustav did not turn out to be a Katrina. The lessons learned from Katrina were evident on the coast. From what I have heard the evacuation went well, the National Guard was in place with food and water right after the storm. Although not everyone will have power, most people are leaving shelters and heading home. CAP worked extra folks 24/7 to assist with security at the BJCC shelter. FEMA reported 48 shelters with 10,141 evacuees in Alabama!
I was visiting my father in Mobile area and got caught in evacuation traffic on I65 on Sunday. I must say that it was stop and go because of the heavy rain bands in south Ala. However, I’d like to say that the State Troopers were definitely on the job! We had to pull over to check the item we had strapped to our roof and within 1 minute and Trooper was there to check on us. I noticed they were there for everyone else too. We decided to get on back roads and really had smooth sailing after that.
We do know of a couple of problems. We were contacted by a small shelter set up in Angie, LA who took in many more folks than they were ready to handle and they were asking for food and supplies. Apparently the deal is with FEMA that you don’t get anything until AFTER the storm. IT IS CRITICAL THAT YOU BRING FOOD, WATER, BLANKETS AND TOILETRIES FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY FOR AT LEAST 3 DAYS WHEN GOING TO A SHELTER.
The other problem was the evacuation of the Humane Society of Hancock County in Waveland. With all the animals in that shelter, they couldn’t evacuate. Fortunately their area did not flood and all is well (except for their constant need of food and supplies). However, people were dumping animals there as they fled the storm. A puppy was literally thrown into the yard which broke his leg, for Pete’s sake. Panic is not pretty, and those people are still shellshocked. We were worried sick about Suzie who runs the shelter in her home, as she refused to evacuate without the animals.
Solution: A couple in Lucendale, MS (Laura and Grant Cales) has stepped up and offered her large home as a temporary shelter for evacuation of this shelter next time (which could be sooner than we’d all like).
Collection: We are collecting pet cages (preferably large cages with room for a litter box) for this evacuation. If you have a cage you’d like to donate, please drop it by the CAP office at 1704 5th Ave. N. and we will make sure it gets to her before the next storm.
Thanks to Lions Club International, we were able to send out the following directly to the clinics. However, we will probably need to go back to shipping pallets if the Bayer donation continues. But the good news is that we will have the money to do that thanks to the Lions!
Angie Free Clinic 42 kits
Bethel Lutheran 48
Coastal Family Health Clinics 48
Covenant House 42
Daughters of Charity 48
D'Iberville Free Clinic 48
Iberia Comprehensive Comm. Health 12
Jefferson Community Health 42
Lower 9th Ward 48
Manna Ministries Free Clinic 48
Primary Health Care Services 48
St. Andrew Clinics 12
St. Charles Community Health 12
7 kits were held back for emergencies
We also shipped box of first aid supplies to Angie, LA. They shared the 30 kits we sent prior to the storm with 2 other towns.
We will be preparing more kits for worker camps cleaning up after Hurricane Gustav.
|