Volunteer spirit
Published: September 6, 2005
As Hurricane Katrina refugees begin to pour into Monroe County, they are being welcomed with open arms.
“Our basic concern is to provide a hot meal and shelter,” said Red Cross volunteer Robert Ramsey, adding that he hoped to have families out of shelters within three days of their arrival. The Monroe County Red Cross and Emergency Management Agency are working to find refugees more permanent places to live and jobs here, since most have nothing left to return to.
The Monroe County Chapter of the American Red Cross created a shelter at the Hopewell Volunteer Fire Department on Friday. It expects to take in some 25 now homeless people from hurricane and flood ravaged areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and Florida.
Ramsey opened up the county’s new regional shelter response unit and began pulling out blankets, cots, first aid kits and personal hygiene kits as the Hopewell Springs community began arriving with food and drinks.
“I’m proud of my community, very proud,” said Ramsey as he shuffled cases of bottled water around and answered his continuously ringing cell phone. He had been busy all morning trying to arrange bus tickets for a family separated during the storm and aftermath. Of the family of six, the parents and two children were to be reunited on Friday. Two other children are still among the missing.
But, in the face of this unprecedented natural disaster, the people of Monroe County are showing their volunteer spirit.
Two churches pitched in and borrowed a truck and tractor-trailer and parked it at Wal-Mart in Madisonville hoping to fill it up this holiday weekend and deliver the non-perishable food items to wherever the Red Cross sends them.
Amateur radio clubs are helping families make contact with each other. Two Red Cross volunteers from Monroe County, Donna Bolinger and Sandy Moore, are even going to help in disaster areas.
Dr. Sigrid Johnson at Sweetwater Family Medical Center has pledged to treat refugees (with their drivers licenses). Call 351-7000 or Sweetwater Hospital at 337-6171 to have her paged.
Charlie Satterfield, mass care coordinator for the Monroe County Emergency Management Agency, said the Red Cross needed volunteers and money more than anything else right now. The Red Cross has set up a post at the visitors center in Sweetwater to tell people about the shelter.
It needs people at that post and also at its headquarters in Madisonville. A fund has been set up at Volunteer Federal bank for donations.
Satterfield also stressed the need for hurricane victims to find homes and jobs, saying, “We want to help them get their lives started again as soon as possible. That will help them feel better about themselves.”
Anyone with rental properties available for people needing long-term housing can call Howe Realty at 337-9355.
People with job openings can call Randstad in Madisonville at 420-0645 or the Randstad office in Athens at 745-9501.
Residents from Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia can seek employment in Tennessee through the state’s career centers and file inter-state unemployment reports through the state’s Department of Labor by calling 1-800-576-3467.
Tennessee businesses wishing to recruit displaced workers should also contact the department. The travel industry has even set up a job bank at www.katrinajobs.org where jobs can be posted by all businesses across American industry in order to help provide work as quickly as possible for those who have been displaced.
Gov. Phil Bredesen asked President Bush to declare a federal emergency for the entire state of Tennessee as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
The governor also deployed more Tennessee National Guard troops, then signed an executive order providing guardsmen and women who are also state employees with partial pay while they are away serving.
In addition, Tennessee will accept displaced students whose schools have been forced to close indefinitely due to storm damage and flooding. A toll-free hotline, 1-800-669-2678, is now in operation to assist eligible students.
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