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 The St. Louis Chapter of the American Red Cross so far has helped 1,000 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina who have made their way here on their own.
The common thread for those helped so far is that they had family or friends or a means to get shelter here.
But 2,000 more evacuees might come to St. Louis as early as this afternoon, said Joe White, CEO of St. Louis’s chapter of the Red Cross. The next influx of evacuees will be those who have been staying in shelters in the Gulf Coast region.
“It will be entirely different than what the Red Cross is providing now for disaster relief,” White said. Those evacuees likely will be housed in a Boeing hangar at Lambert Field. The Red Cross and other area non-profit organizations are waiting to hear exactly when these evacuees will arrive, but they are preparing to receive them.
The people who may be arriving will have been on the road for hours, White said, and will have been separated from family and friends.
“We are trying to help them with our mental health professionals,” White said. “They need to be stabilized as quickly as possible.”
Those who are here now evacuated early and escaped with the clothes on their back, and often a little more. But as money, medicine and basic items like toothpaste and soap have dwindled, they have turned to the Red Cross.
Van Nguyen and Nu Ly, his wife, fled Buras, La., 60 miles south of New Orleans, two days before Katrina made landfall. Intending to return home, they had no relocation plan and money for only a few days. A levee break left them homeless and jobless. Nguyen and his wife headed to St. Louis where his son lives in south St. Louis County.
The family sought help Sunday at the Red Cross office in Creve Coeur because they had lost everything. Nguyen and his wife came to the United States from Vietnam 15 years ago. Nguyen, a commercial fisherman, and Ly had all of their assets tied up in their house and fishing boat.
White said the Red Cross was providing prescription drug refills, debit cards and other necessities “so people can go to area stores and buy things to stabilize their lives.”
Nguyen and his wife appreciate the help. “For now, everything is OK, but for the future – I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Nguyen said in Vietnamese through Lisa Nguyen, his daughter-in-law.
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