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Area Volunteers Aid Evacuees in Texas
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| By The Indiana Gazette |
September 25, 2005 |
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About a dozen local Red Cross and Salvation Army volunteers are now or have been on disaster relief assignments in the Gulf Coast states, helping victims of Hurricane Katrina.
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But as Hurricane Rita threatened the Gulf Coast, a new contingent of Indiana volunteers headed to Texas on Friday as Red Cross shelters opened for the next wave of evacuees. Among those volunteers were Frank Kinter, Chartered Financial Consultant account manager for the Indiana office of Ameritas Acacia Companies, and recent Indiana University of Pennsylvania graduate Jennifer Dean.
UPON THEIR arrival in San Antonio, the volunteers were quickly thrown into the fire.
After checking into the San Antonio Marriott Hotel, they arrived at an old Levi Strauss factory at the same time as about 25 other volunteers. There, organizers quickly dispatched them to an evacuation center at Kelly Air Force Base, about 10 miles from the hotel.
The building at the base where they are working is about three or four city blocks long and contains four housing zones, according to Kinter, 50.
"Each zone is the size of two to three football fields, with wall-to-wall cots and wall-to-wall people," he said Saturday morning. At the time of his call, volunteers were setting up a fifth housing zone, and more evacuees were lined up outside.
With stacks of clothing and other supplies, the warehouse looked like a department store, Kinter said. The facility is air-conditioned, which is fortunate, as it was a humid day with temperatures in the 90s.
He said he couldn't imagine the conditions in the Superdome in New Orleans in the wake of Katrina.
"There is a very strong police presence," he said of the base facility.
At dinnertime Friday night, several lines in the cafeteria were 300 people deep.
"It's primarily a small city, with about 3,200 evacuees in
one large building," Kinter said. And organizers were told that 2,000 more were to arrive through the night and into Saturday morning.
"We got a call from another shelter asking us to take 2,000 more, but we weren't in the position to do that, just not enough space or resources.
"It's just an incredible scene here. It's an overwhelming operation."
THE BASE FACILITY also housed about 5,000 evacuees immediately after Katrina hit. It is one of many shelters in San Antonio, where thousands of evacuees have been relocated.
Moods of the evacuees cover the spectrum, from grateful to depressed, Kinter said.
"Most people were very gracious to know that they have a safe place to stay. But at the same time you sense the frustration and despair from those who have been at other shelters and have been relocated to shelters here and who don't know where they are going to spend the rest of their lives."
Among the evacuees Kinter met were a single mother from New Orleans and her four children.
The woman balked at attempts to register her and her children at the center because she was so exhausted, Kinter said. To give the woman time to herself, Kinter and some other volunteers watched the children for a half-hour.
"They were fun," Kinter said. "They asked how did I get a mustache, where are you from? They would wear my glasses and my identification armband."
Meantime, morale remains high among the volunteers, he said. "We're just trying to help as many people as we can and handle as many problems and issues as we can."
Red Cross relief efforts also brought about some chance encounters. A shelter manager from Houston met up with a counterpart from Los Angeles whom he hadn't seen since the seventh or eighth grade. Kinter was also stopped in a hotel elevator Friday night by an IUP graduate living in Houston who noticed "Indiana County chapter of the American Red Cross" written on Kinter's jacket.
Kinter noted the stark difference in the atmospheres of the hotel and shelter: "There're people in that shelter who have lost their homes, maybe forever. But the world goes on around us. People at the hotel were going out for the evening, to dinner or whatever. And 10 miles away there are thousands who don't know what the future holds. It's quite a contrast."
KINTER'S ADVENTURES in San Antonio could be considered initiation by fire. The Red Cross disaster volunteer just completed the third of his three required training sessions on Thursday evening, the night before his plane took off.
And more volunteers are "in the pipeline" - undergoing Red Cross training or awaiting an assignment - according to Kathleen Pino, executive director of the Indiana County chapter of the American Red Cross.
During much of last week, Kinter was unsure when his assignment would come.
"Their scheduling needs change from day to day, sometimes hour to hour," he said.
And where he would be assigned was up in the air, too.
Early last week, Kinter knew little more about his mission than the list of recommended items to take along - a flashlight and batteries, insect repellent, personal bedding and comfortable clothes for warm weather.
Kinter had supported the Red Cross financially over the years, but this is his first assignment as a hands-on volunteer.
Before heading out Friday, his concerns ranged from doing the best job possible in helping people with a variety of backgrounds and emotions, to more personal concerns about being away from home.
"I haven't left my home or family for more than one week at a time," he said. "It's the first time I've done it, so I'm unsure what to expect."
"Just a desire to help other people" is what persuaded him to take the training classes and volunteer for service in the hurricane recovery area, he said. "Our family has been extremely fortunate. (His daughter, Kaiti, a junior at the University of Southern Mississippi, escaped harm when Katrina blew through Hattiesburg.) I'm fortunate that my profession allows me some flexibility ... an opportunity to be away for a couple of weeks."
ALSO HARD AT WORK at the Red Cross shelter in San Antonio is Dean, 25, of Indiana.
A May graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English education, Dean said she was tired of just watching the stories of destruction on TV in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
She wanted to help.
Inspired by her sister, Jessica Dean, Red Cross disaster services coordinator, Dean left Friday for three weeks of disaster relief work at the evacuee center at Kelly Air Force Base.
"I don't have a lot of money so I donated what I could, but I felt like I could be doing something more," Dean said Saturday night via cell phone after finishing a 12-hour shift in the distribution center, where basic necessities, like diapers, toothpaste and clothing, are dispensed.
After arriving in Texas, Dean said she expected at least one introductory meeting for relief workers but instead found herself going straight to work, distributing hygiene products and clothing to the estimated 2,800 people - mostly families - housed at the base.
The Indiana native described the scene as chaotic ("You eat and sleep when you can."), and by the second day, found herself in charge of the distribution center and answering many of the workers' and evacuees' questions.
"It's kind of like a store and people come in and we try to get them what they need," she said. "And since there was no delegation of authority, we built our own system."
All the hard work is undoubtedly worth it, she said.
"It's been an eye-opening experience," she said. "I definitely feel like I understand what these people are going through. I don't feel like I'm helpless, watching TV anymore. I'm actually doing something."
Gazette staff members Randy Wells, Will Kennedy, Kelsey Volkmann and Elaine Jacobs Smith contributed to this report.
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©Indiana Printing & Publishing Co. 2009
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