Trinity — A Shelter from the Storm

by Roger Soons
Shelter Manager and Chair of Building and Grounds

For the third time in less than one year the call comes in to Trinity Presbyterian Church from the Meridian, MS, Key Chapter of the American Red Cross, requesting that we open as a hurricane shelter by 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 27, 2005. With help from Boy Scout Troop 40, church members and staff set up our Family Life Building with cots and begin to obtain the initial stock of food to support a normal four day operation. My wife and I have been visiting friends in Slidell, LA and hear the television reports of turning Interstate 59 into a contra-flow evacuation route prior to the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. We hastily cancel our plans to dine in New Orleans to celebrate our anniversary and scurry back to Meridian since Trinity is typically the first shelter to open in Meridian.

Saturday evening is quiet but the number begins to swell on a bright and sunny Sunday. Our kitchen coordinator, Joyce Goldner, has already prepared Sunday lunch for the evacuees and a group of about 15 volunteers from Trinity’s congregation begin to organize a schedule for manning our shelter for 24 hour operation. Our 40th anniversary dinner is hot dogs and the entertainment is helping clean up the kitchen. We give each other a supply of duct tape (never operate a shelter without a good supply of duct tape).

By 10:00 am Monday 8/29, the rains begin to swirl and trees are bending in the wind. Katrina is still a force one hurricane when it hits Meridian.

Several trees are uprooted but fortunately miss the main building and cars, although our storage shed and picnic pavilion will need repairs. Part of our crew works to run electrical cords from the Red Cross supplied electrical generator through the kitchen window to power the refrigerator as well as oxygen generators for several of our shelter residents. We will not win an award for electrical engineering, but with the help of our trusty duct tape, we string a maze of extension cords along the floors and walls. We don’t have to wait long before the power goes out and we crank up the generator and plug in our cords. Happily the refrigerator still works, we have two 75 watt bulbs to illuminate our kitchen and the folks on oxygen generators give us a thumbs up.

Little do we know that regular power will not be restored until late that Friday, and that this will be a 22- day shelter adventure. We are blessed to have several National Red Cross volunteers assigned to our shelter who can provide more in-depth information on Red Cross procedures; training of our church volunteers never took place when Hurricane Dennis cancelled our previously scheduled training day earlier in the year. At the height of the storm we have157 shelter residents and staff housed in the shelter.

From radio reports and phone calls from distant relatives we learn that the destruction to the Gulf Coast is significant and then we learn of the flooding in New Orleans when the levy breaks. We are able to power up a small TV from our generator and tears stream down faces as residents and staff are finally able to see pictures of their home towns literally blown away or flooded. Meridian suffers substantial wind damage, but we are fortunate that Sam’s Club opens up for the Red Cross and we are able to get additional supplies to run the shelter. A spirit of camaraderie has developed between staff and residents. Several ladies spend their own money to purchase fixins’ for red beans and rice and prepare the meal to give the kitchen crew a break. Another of our residents previously managed a restaurant in New Orleans East and prepares several culinary delights; we are hoping he will stay in Meridian and open a restaurant! On Memorial Day, Monday we hold a barbeque in our back parking lot which shelter residents have helped to clear of debris.

A number of the residents help our crew with preparing and serving meals, taking out trash and mopping floors and bathrooms to help maintain the shelter and give our custodian some much needed rest. Running a shelter 24 hours a day takes more folks than we have, but people from the congregation, community and other churches graciously sign up for kitchen duty, manning the phones and the check-in desk and whatever else is needed. Other Red Cross volunteers such as nurses and mental health workers assisting at our shelter have come from places like Alabama, Colorado, North and South Carolina, Ohio, Illinois, Washington, and Wisconsin.

We thank God at each meal for our blessings and pray that he will provide us strength through our faith in him to help us all through the ordeal. Over the next few weeks we will provide food and shelter for a total of 420 people ranging in age from 1 month to 93 years old.

We work to get information for our shelter residents on how to apply for FEMA and Red Cross assistance as well as trying to coordinate information on housing, job opportunities, transportation and other family members. It is often frustrating to shelter residents and staff alike to ride the roller coaster of rumors, misinformation, and bureaucracy.

There is cause for joy when the electrical power is restored to the church. Air conditioning makes life much more pleasant, especially for sleeping and for those working in the kitchen. We also have other reasons for celebration: one of our shelter residents gets married; another learns that her brother and niece who had been reported as drowned have been found alive and safe. Another resident is reunited with her young son who had been spending the weekend with his father in New Orleans. Calls are received from other churches all over the nation asking what they can do to help.

During the second week, children in the shelter begin to attend school in Meridian and, not surprisingly, are happy to leave the boredom of the shelter and be with other children. It provides some quiet time and a chance for parents to spend their time applying for assistance and trying to sort what direction the Lord may be leading them next. A large number of the shelter residents attend a devotional meeting and our regular worship service on Sunday to thank God that they are still alive and to pray for family and friends whose fate was still unknown.