Extent of misery staggers workers

The director of the state's food bank system has been pleading for donations.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A line of more than 100 people being told food and other supplies had run out for the day and an 80-year-old woman sobbing as she wondered how she would survive are only a few of the painful scenes that food bank workers have witnessed while trying to help people who lost their homes and belongings in southeast Ohio flooding.
"It's heartbreaking to see all of the devastation and know that we don't have enough food and other supplies to help everyone," Marilyn Sloan, coordinator of the Second Harvest Foodbank of Southeast Ohio in Logan, said Friday.
Sloan and other officials of the state's 12 Second Harvest food banks are worried about how they will provide the food, water, juices and cleaning supplies needed by residents of 18 counties affected by the flooding that resulted last week from remnants of Hurricane Ivan. Food and other supplies are dangerously low at the state's food banks, partly because many of the usual donors have been shipping items to Florida and Alabama to help victims of the hurricane, officials said.
The director of Ohio's food bank system said she has been on the phone pleading with foundations, corporations and individuals for any type of assistance.
"We are in a crisis situation when it comes to food because so many of our food banks around the state are being emptied to help the ones in the disaster areas," said Lisa Hamler-Podolski, director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.
Marietta
City officials in Marietta, one of the areas hardest hit by the floods, said they are working around the clock to coordinate supplies of food, water and other items needed by residents.
"So far, we have been able to send people to some secondary centers when some run out of supplies, but we are nervous that the next truckload of supplies might not be there tomorrow," said Michael Cullums, spokesman for the Washington County Emergency Management Agency. "We already have had brief periods of running out of food and cleaning supplies, but we are very concerned about the long-term supplies."
About 600 homes and 600 businesses were damaged in Marietta after the Ohio River reached its highest level in 40 years.
Sloan, whose region includes Washington County, said she no longer has food left to help other counties if another disaster occurs and had to ask for help from the national headquarters of Second Harvest, the network of food banks based in Chicago. She planned to lead a caravan of trucks with supplies from the national headquarters to Marietta and other hard-hit areas over the weekend.
"The national headquarters doesn't have much to spare either because food pantries around the country have been struggling to meet the needs of people who have lost their jobs, and now this disaster has made everything much worse," she said.
Lost everything
Jamie Logue, 30, who lives in the small community of Neffs in Belmont County, lost all his belongings when the basement apartment he shared with his wife and 2-year-old daughter was flooded.
"At least my family and I have a place to stay," he said, while working Friday to help the Belmont County EMA distribute food and other needed items to other residents.
Hamler-Podolski said Friday that her board will be calling on Gov. Bob Taft and the Legislature to provide more help to the food banks.
Robert Glenn, a spokesman for the Ohio EMA, said the state has been establishing joint state-federal disaster recovery centers in affected counties. Anyone wishing to donate supplies for flood-damaged counties can coordinate with other relief efforts through the state's toll-free, donation management hot line at (888) 356-6364.