Evacuee praises service centers

Service centers for evacuees are in Youngstown and Warren.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Shanta Douglas' journey home took nine days and $380 she didn't have.
On Monday, Douglas and her mother, Addier Douglas, were at The Salvation Army on Glenwood Avenue to find the younger woman some clothes.
The 33-year-old Chaney High School graduate left her flooded New Orleans apartment Sept. 1. She arrived in Youngstown on Saturday night after a flight to Cleveland from San Antonio.
The Salvation Army, 1501 Glenwood Ave., and the One-Stop at 147 W. Market St., Warren, are central one-stop service centers for Hurricane Katrina evacuees in the area.
"We need to get the word out," said Jean Malandro, social services director for The Salvation Army Mahoning County Area Services. She said representatives of SA social services, the American Red Cross, social and mental health agencies, medical services, etc., will be at each location so much of the help evacuees need is under one roof.
The centers are operating 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Youngstown site and 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday in Warren.
Shanta Douglas said the one-stop service centers established here are just what is needed to help displaced Hurricane Katrina evacuees reconnect.
She is a Navy veteran and a seaman in the Naval Reserve. She said she was frustrated after calling several agencies that just referred her to other agencies. Then the Department of Veterans Affairs referred her to the Salvation Army's one-stop center.
Left with nothing
Douglas said that after transport out of harm's way, evacuees are left to fend for themselves. She was in San Antonio with only the clothes she wore -- shorts and a tank top -- with no money to get home to Youngstown or to other family members in Mississippi.
Bus fare was not cheap -- $180 one-way -- and plane fare was even more expensive -- $380 -- but the bus trip from Texas to Ohio would take three days.
A Youngstown church gave her mother $200, and she asked a friend if she could put $380 on her credit card so her daughter could fly home.
"I never asked for anything like that before," the mother said. "She told me we would work out paying the money back later. She just told me to get my child home."
Douglas has been away from Youngstown for nine years, including four years of active duty and four years as a reservist in New Orleans.
On Sept. 8, Douglas and several people from her apartment building waded through floodwaters and flagged down passing trucks to escape the ruined city. Without a ride, they faced a 10-mile walk to safety.
Douglas said that even though they lived one block from Lake Pontchartrain, she and others in her apartment building didn't leave ahead of the storm because they didn't expect the hurricane to be severe.
"The last time mom called, she told me I'd better leave," Douglas said. "She said, 'Your mayor is on TV,' and I said, 'Oh, did he look good?' When the hurricane started, I just kept going to different parts of my apartment listening to the different sounds. I even slept through some of it. I had no idea there were 150-mile-an-hour winds. They said on the radio windows were blowing out, but that didn't happen in our building."
Power went out quickly, however, as did telephone and cellular phone service. There was no water service by the end of the first day, Aug. 29.
"Friends invited me to their apartment and for a couple of days we barbecued and listened to the radio," she said. "We kept each other's spirits up. We were out on our balconies and the sun was shining."
Had to leave quickly
Douglas said that only when radio reports said the water in Lake Pontchartrain and the floodwater in the city were at the same level did she and her friends realize they were in danger.
"The radio announcer said, 'It's time for Operation Get Out,' and we were stunned. They said the levee wasn't going to hold and about 30 minutes after that, we were flooded. I went back to my apartment and I couldn't get anything. I was just thinking of clothes, but I couldn't even get to my closet."
Douglas left The Salvation Army on Monday with a bag of clothes, including sweat pants and other warm items suited for Ohio's cooler weather. She even found a blue suit to wear to church. She plans to return Wednesday when more representatives of social service agencies are staffing the one-stop center.
After being in New Orleans four days with no power, then crammed among the throngs of evacuees for five days in Texas, Douglas cried as her plane flew over the well-lighted Cleveland skyline Saturday night.
"I left everything I knew behind," she said. "When I saw those lights, I knew I was coming home. I'm here -- and I love Youngstown!"
tullis@vindy.com