Lessons From Katrina Show Signs of Paying Off for Charities and Those They Serve

Jackson, Miss.

While Hurricane Gustav largely bypassed this city 180 miles north of the coast, roughly 3,400 people are still in shelters here awaiting word as to when they might be able to return home.

People continued to flood into Jackson’s largest shelter on Tuesday, a coliseum operated jointly by the state Department of Human Services and the American Red Cross.

More than 200 people arrived on Tuesday, some of them from smaller shelters that were closing. The building held 950 people as of Tuesday morning, short of the roughly 1,500 people some officials said it was capable of holding.

On Tuesday, American Red Cross volunteers and Department of Human Services staff members were struggling to find cots for the new arrivals.

The relief effort seems to have largely avoided many of the problems that plagued the response to Hurricane Katrina, both because of preparations made in advance of the storm and because the hurricane did less damage than predicted. But charity volunteers and staff members are already looking ahead to the potential problems that could be caused by three big storms in the Atlantic that forecasters say could bring trouble to the America’s coastal regions in the next week or so.

Charities Collaborate

Here at Jackson’s largest shelter, there were a few signs that charity leaders and government workers had tried to apply lessons from the 2005 storm.

The American Red Cross, Save the Children, and the Mississippi Department of Human Services had set up a room filled with coloring books, videos, books, and other toys to keep children’s minds off the storm. One volunteer played bingo with some children while another signed in children and talked with their parents.

“This has given the parents a break,” said Annjo Lemons, director of Excel by 5, a program of Mississippi State University. “It’s been wonderful for people who have evacuated.”

Ms. Lemons was one of about 20 volunteers in Mississippi who had been certified by Save the Children and the American Red Cross through a program designed to train volunteers in how to provide assistance to children in shelters.

Nearby, evacuees watched CNN on a television donated by Mississippi Public Broadcasting. At least six volunteers from the station arrived on Tuesday to assist in the shelter’s child-care center.

Belinda Lane, an early-childhood specialist at Mississippi Public Broadcasting, said she had found it easier to support relief efforts after this storm than Hurricane Katrina.

“People have made really good choices, good decisions,” she said. “Even in terms of giving, there were centers and drop-off points that were convenient and made it easier to make sure goods were getting to the right people.”

Volunteers from the local affiliates of the Urban League and Catholic Charities were also providing assistance in the coliseum, both through partnerships created after Hurricane Katrina.

Lucille Dixon, an administrative assistant at the Urban League of Greater Jackson, said the Red Cross had called her office over the weekend asking for assistance. She was one of six people who had agreed to volunteer.

Jennifer Sigrest, evaluation coordinator at the Jackson affiliate of Catholic Charities, was one of several workers from the charity called in by the American Red Cross to provide psychological counseling.

Ms. Sigrest said her charity had developed a program after Hurricane Katrina to provide emergency psychological assistance at shelters. She said she believed the response to Gustav had so far gone smoothly, although she wondered why no psychological counselor had been on site at the coliseum until Tuesday.

“It was a good test of the system,” she said of Hurricane Gustav. “Thankfully it wasn’t as devastating as it might have been, but I still think things would have gone better than Katrina.”

Clients Are Satisfied

Some evacuees said they were satisfied with the services they had received.

“It’s been better than good. It’s been excellent,” said Jerome Booth, a construction worker who’d taken a bus from his home in Biloxi.

But many people were also growing increasingly anxious about their homes and when they would be able to return.

Niyona Jackson, who works as a cook in Biloxi, said she was unhappy with her decision to evacuate herself and her children. She had remained in Biloxi during Hurricane Katrina, and while the 2005 storm flooded her apartment, Ms. Jackson said her experience at the shelter over the past few days had convinced her not to evacuate in advance of future storms.

“Next time I’ll stay,” she said. “It’s freezing in here. We don’t have enough blankets or towels. The mayor came here but he left just as we were asking questions. I just don’t like this.”

Ms. Jackson said her 14 family members were sharing two towels and four blankets.

As of Tuesday afternoon, no decision had been made on when evacuees might be allowed to return. But Red Cross volunteers were telling people who had arrived via bus that they would be assured free transportation.

For Ms. Jackson, that was a necessity. “If you’re going to bring us down here, make sure you bring us back,” she said.

While the Red Cross was criticized after Hurricane Katrina for not working well with local charities and government agencies, Michael Miller, county director with the Department of Human Services, said he has so far been pleased with the partnership between his agency and Red Cross volunteers at the Jackson shelter.

“We’ve tried to foster what I have always considered a positive situation with the Red Cross,” he said.

He said his agency had worked with the Red Cross long before Katrina struck. But since the 2005 storm, the agency has trained staff members in every county in how to assist in shelters.

Gerry Gilmour, a Red Cross volunteer for nine years who is running the shelter, said no government agencies in states where she had volunteered in the past had worked as closely with the charity.

“I’ve never been in a situation like this,” she said.

Like most Red Cross volunteers, Ms. Gilmour , who lives in Wisconsin, has been deployed for three weeks. While she wasn’t sure how long the coliseum would continue to serve evacuees from Hurricane Gustav, she and others wondered if storms that were now threatening the Gulf Coast would force people to return.

Said Mr. Miller: “Depending on Josephine, on Ike, and where they end up, we might reopen.”