Jonathan Jackson
Representatives from GCSU, the Oconee Valley Red Cross, DFCS and Baldwin County Emergency Management toured GCSU’s Centennial Center Friday to assess its possible usage as a shelter should Hurricane Ike send coastal inhabitants inland over the next few days.
Justin Gaines, Emergency Preparedness Occupational Safety coordinator for GCSU, along with Colin Duke with Emergency Management led a group through the complex, taking stock of the center’s offerings should a shelter be needed.
“We would make the call after being contacted by the fire chief,” Gaines said.
“We actually did open the center as a shelter during the [Hurricane] Floyd evacuation,” Duke said. “Our local churches really did a good job that night feeding and housing people who evacuated.”
The group inspected Centennial Center Friday, counting the number of toilets, sinks and showers, laundry facilities, as well as floor space for potential evacuees to spend time riding out any potential storm.
“All of our volunteers are on standby right now,” Oconee Valley Red Cross manager Billie Brown said. “In every way that we know how to be, we are ready.”
Brown said that Internet use, cell phones and other technologies, like the Red Cross Web site that has a safe and well registry, make preparation before a storm much more streamlined that it has been in the past.
“We partner with radio stations, even our local HAM radio operators, to communicate with the public should a disaster strike,” Brown said.
Tangie Strong with Baldwin County DFCS is a trained shelter manager who would be one of the first contacts should a shelter opening be needed.
“Baldwin DFCS did assist with some [Hurricane] Katrina evacuees at Rock Eagle,” Strong said. “Some of our employees are shelter trained.”
According to Brown, EMA recruits locations to act as shelters. Thus far Centennial Center, Oak Hill Middle School, Midway Elementary School, Baldwin High School, and First United Methodist Church are possible shelters. The administration building at Walter B. Williams Park is a pet-friendly shelter, thanks in large part to the efforts of Bobbie Thompson, director of the Animal Rescue Foundation. The group planned to check out the National Guard Armory, which has been undergoing renovations, to see if it is suitable for a shelter as well.
“Every Red Cross chapter has standing agreements,” Brown said. “For instance, some Baptist churches agree to provide feeding, and some retailers provide drinking water. We’ve done all this preparation. Hopefully we won’t need it.”
A Friday afternoon Associated Press report indicated that Tropical Storm Hanna had picked up speed, but was headed toward the Carolinas with strong winds and rain. Hurricane Ike is not far behind, on a path similar to the one taken by Hurricane Andrew, the Category 5 monster that devastated South Florida in 1992.
Ike could hit Florida by the middle of next week, but its path and whether Georgia will be affected, is still yet to be determined.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
