Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Many people seeking assistance have come because of family or friends here.
By NANCY TULLIS and ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
Salina Covington has been serving the people of Youngstown since she moved here from Chicago in 1968.
For the past two weeks, helping Katrina evacuees has been a big part of her ministry at The Place Where God Provides Christian Center at Oak Hill and Evergreen.
On Tuesday, her ministry volunteers fed some members of a group of 20 people who fled St. Bernard Parish, La. They range in age from 3 to 70, including a 24-year-old woman who is deaf and blind.
Covington said the group of French and Spanish Cajuns represent five families who were living together in one house in St. Bernard Parish.
Now they are staying with a sister in Youngstown, where they migrated a few at a time after learning much of St. Bernard Parish had been destroyed.
In close quarters at their sister's home, patience soon wore thin, and tempers flared, so several of the family members left the sister's home, Covington said. Some of them had cars, so they could be anywhere, she said.
On Tuesday after they ate and took showers at Covington's ministry center, several of the family members went to search for their missing loved ones.
Personalized help
Covington wants to help ease tensions in that household and said her ministry has room for many of them to stay, with cots, showers and laundry facilities in the ministry basement. Covington wants to help the family members find work and places to stay.
For family members who lived in the country, living in an unfamiliar urban environment added stress to their already chaotic lives. Covington is making connections with ministers in Columbiana and Carroll counties who might be able to help some of the family relocate to rural areas.
Also among the evacuees Covington is helping are a young man from Biloxi, Miss., and a young woman from New Orleans. She is helping the young man find a job and a place to live.
The young woman is staying at the YWCA, and Covington is helping her connect at Youngstown State University so she can continue her college education. The young woman was living on her own in New Orleans and attending Tulane University, Covington said.
One-stop centers
About 20 families have been helped so far at one-stop centers for Hurricane Katrina victims in Warren and Youngstown.
About 15 people visited the Trumbull County one-stop center on Warren's West Market Street the past two weeks, seeking help.
William Turner, one-stop manager, said many of the people leaving parts of Louisiana and Mississippi to seek help here don't seem to know yet whether they need temporary or long-term help.
"A lot of it is people looking for relocation," Turner said, identifying that as help with housing, food, child health care, employment and cash, as well as education and employment assistance.
"They may have nothing, so they are here looking for a temporary or permanent place to live," Turner said.
He speculated that many of them had come to Warren because of family or friends here. "I can't say that a lot of people in Louisiana are going to say 'Let's go here [Warren].' Louisiana is quite a long ways away."
He said his office and the county's Job and Family Services office, which are organized under one administration, were alerted by state officials on Friday to expect a lot more people in the coming weeks.
Turner said he doesn't expect that many more people, however, especially since communities all across the country are putting out the welcome mat. "I don't think we will get quite the demand that was thought," he said.
Salvation Army
Jean Malandro, director of social services for the Salvation Army Mahoning County Area Services, said the Salvation Army helped five families before the One-Stop Center opened Monday at the Salvation Army on Glenwood Avenue. She said about four families have been at the center the past few days.
The center will be in full operation today with representatives of mental health agencies, the city health department, area hospitals and other social service agencies on hand to assist evacuees.
Area amateur radio operators also will be at the one-stop center today, available to help evacuees try to locate friends and loved ones in New Orleans and other areas devastated by the hurricane, she said.