Valley's donations hit home

Truckers' message to Valley residents is to get involved and keep on giving.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Some of the thousands of evacuees in Louisiana overwhelmed by grief and tragedy in the wake of Hurricane Katrina are now overcome by the generosity of Mahoning Valley residents.
"Y'all are just so wonderful, so unbelievable, so sweet. We are just speechless," said volunteer Jennifer Thibodeaux. "We appreciate this so much. Tell everybody -- all the people and the businesses up there, 'Thank you!'"
Thibodeaux and her colleagues from Valero Refining Co. are at a warehouse at Krotz Springs, La., just northwest of New Orleans, sorting and distributing donated items, including the first truckload donated in a relief effort here organized by Bruce Zoldan, president of B.J. Alan Co.
Thibodeaux said she couldn't wait to take the donated items to the shelters.
"It is just so sad to see the people," Thibodeaux said. "The look on their faces is so desperate, so helpless. When we give them bottled water and toothbrushes and diapers -- all the things y'all sent -- they are overwhelmed, very thankful and appreciative."
Awaiting news
Thibodeaux is an accountant for Valero Refining Co. She said Valero employees are waiting to hear the fate of the workers at a sister oil refinery in New Orleans. The company has 550 employees, and 250 are unaccounted for.
She said the area there and her hometown of Opelousas, La., a city of about 25,000, escaped Katrina's fury. Now, however, those cities and every small town between New Orleans and Houston are full of evacuees. There are shelters about every 10 miles, she said.
Thibodeaux hesitated when asked if there were any specific items needed, because the Mahoning Valley has already given so much. She said, however, that towels are desperately needed -- as are any kind of mats or air mattresses.
"We just can't find any of that here," she said. "There's nothing like that anywhere between here and Houston. People are sleeping on concrete floors."
Valley trucker
"It's just a war zone down here," said Mahoning Valley trucker Stan Barefield as he drove Interstate 59 through Hattiesburg, Miss. He passed several convoys of National Guard troops headed toward New Orleans. "It looks like a nuclear bomb went off."
Barefield and fellow trucker Sonny Fredericks volunteered to drive supplies to Krotz Springs. He said their message for Mahoning Valley residents is to get involved and keep on giving.
"They are just wonderful people down here and they need help as soon as possible," Barefield said. "Time is running out for a lot of these people. There's nothing here. The stores are empty. We don't want any medals or pats on the back. We just want to do what we can to help these people, to get diapers and food to these poor babies down here as quick as we can. They could put 100 truckloads of supplies in that warehouse we just left, and it would be empty in three days."
Barefield and Fredericks left B.J. Alan Co. in downtown Youngstown at 6 p.m. Friday, in a C.D. Ambrosia Trucking Co. vehicle, and arrived at the Krotz Springs warehouse about 2 p.m. Saturday. Coming home, it took them three hours to travel the outskirts of New Orleans from the west to the north side. They stopped at a Wal-Mart north of New Orleans about 6:30 p.m. and were told the store was closing at 7 p.m. because of a curfew.
"It is just a nightmare," Barefield said. "It's unbelievable. There are trees down everywhere, some in the road. We just drove over some downed power lines. The radio crackled when we went over them and we just looked at each other -- God, there are still live wires."
Barefield said the volunteers cried when he and Fredericks backed the truck into the warehouse and opened the doors.
"They looked at the big cards the people who donated things signed and where Youngstown was on the map," Barefield said. "They were crying and they kept saying they couldn't believe people clear up by Canada would want to help them."
Barefield said that when the truck was empty, the volunteers fed them a shrimp dinner and then wanted to give them cash.
"We just looked at each other," Barefield said. "We told them we couldn't take their money and we got out of there in a hurry."
tullis@vindy.com