After getting to bed around 4 a.m., the day started off with a 7:30 wake up call that the City Incident Command wanted to have someone from the Red Cross at their twice daily briefings. At the briefing, it was talked about moving our shelter from the Slicer Street Church to the American Legion where the city had set up an impromptu shelter when we reached our capacity late last night.

 

So as soon as the meeting broke, they sent me back with the crew from the local fire house to help break down and load up the trailer with all the cots from the old shelter and move them to the new shelter. Somewhere in the middle of the move, the Verizon Wireless tower went down --  taking our phone service and internet connection with it. Also right after that the major fiber optic cable that fed internet into the area was cut, leaving the Incident Command Post without an internet connection. You might be thinking, "Without internet how can Mark possibly blog?" Well, at the Command Post we have been allowed to use the backup internet -- which happens to be a direct satellite connection.  I have to say, this happens to be the first time I have blogged "via satellite." 

 

After the shelter manager went to the new shelter, I stayed behind to help get everything from the old shelter and then move the trailer to the new one. The rest of the morning was spent trying to get some sort of phone system so that we could be in contact with Chapter. In a last ditch effort, the Kennett Fire Department worked with Wal-Mart to provide us with to AT&T "Go Phones." So we know we have phone service while they work with AT&T to have a hardline installed.

 

So after we got all moved in to our new home, and our shelter office was set up, it was time for the second briefing of the day. From there it was nice to see the system working and every function coming together to ensure everyone was well taken care of. We worked on getting a generator moved to the high school so that we can get showers up and running. It will make our 287 residents we have tonight happy to be able to take hot showers.

 

Also discussed was trying to get word out for those people staying in their homes who might be running out of food. The school district is going to be starting bus routes to pick up residents and bring them to shelter for food. After the meeting I went back to the shelter and found out we were being sent five additional Red Cross volunteers to work in our shelter. Using volunteers from the community we were able to implement shifts working either from 7am – 7pm or 7pm – 7am.

 

So after another day where I can remember this morning and feel like it was last week, the moving of 137 residents from one shelter went off without a hitch, and about 30 minutes ago we saw the first street light since Tuesday light up as power was restored to another small chunk of the city. Make sure you tune in tomorrow where you can hear all about the Honorable Jay Nixon and his visit to Kennett.

 

Until tomorrow!

Mark McWilliams