FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 28, 2011
University Relations & Marketing
417.625.9399
JOPLIN, MO (SNS) – Block after block of homes were destroyed when a tornado ripped a path of destruction through the city of Joplin on Sunday, May 22. In addition to the dead and injured, hundreds of citizens were left homeless.
That's when the Ozarks Chapter of the American Red Cross stepped in.
Less than two hours after the tornado, Robert Ellis Young Gymnasium and Leggett & Platt Athletic Center at Missouri Southern State University became a Red Cross Disaster Shelter.
Amazingly, the ink was scarcely dry on the agreement for the American Red Cross to use MSSU's facilities. Darren Fullerton, Vice President for Student Services, says the agreement with Red Cross to shelter the homeless at Missouri Southern was signed only about two weeks earlier.
The Health Sciences Building, about 100 yards from the shelter, became a hospital, complete with physicians, nurses and patient beds. (The storm destroyed one of Joplin’s two hospitals and had filled the remaining one to capacity.)
Chad Bailey, a Red Cross volunteer and, for a time, acting Shelter Manager, says the shelter at MSSU has provided an average of 350 people a place to sleep and eat in the first week after the tornado. The number varies. The shelter fills up at night but, during the day, most of the cots are empty.
"Some of the people are at work," Bailey says. Others are clearing up debris or shopping, filling out forms with FEMA and other agencies or looking for new residences," he explains.
Although a small number of the Red Cross contingent are employed by the Red Cross, most are volunteers. They provide a wide range of services to the displaced Joplin citizens at the shelter.
"They have all been fully trained," Bailey says. "We offer sheltering classes but many more classes are also offered that volunteers can take. Some have taken every class we have. People in the community should realize that one of our greatest needs are people who are willing to become certified Red Cross volunteers.”
In better times, the volunteers work on projects other than disaster relief. They are a familiar site at Red Cross blood drives, local disaster drills and CPR training sessions.
Nearly a week after the disaster, the Red Cross shelter at MSSU is fully operational, providing a wide variety of services. Those include food, shelter, health care and disaster mental health counseling. Shelter residents also are given personal hygiene items and a place to shower.
Tables near the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center entrance offer sites for people displaced by the storm to sign up for Medicaid and Food Stamp services.
A Red Cross "Safe and Well" station helps track the missing. Workers at that desk have been available since the first few hours after the Joplin tragedy.
The list doesn't stop there. Two long distance telephone and internet providers have set up banks where displaced persons can charge cell phones and use laptops and printers. Laptops have also been made available through the Missouri Southern IT Department.
In one corner of the dining areas, three large screen televisions are watched by several residents. They are set to news, sports and children's programming channels. More televisions are being brought in to allow those in the shelter to watch the Sunday, May 29 Memorial Service at which President Obama will speak to the residents of a city brought to its knees by the tornado.
In the days since the tornado hundreds of media representatives have flooded into Joplin, including the shelter areas. Working with Missouri Southern State University employees, the Red Cross has helped the media get their stories, while protecting the privacy of shelter residents. Reporters have come from China, Latin America and such well known papers as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and countless other magazines and radio and television networks.
Since cots were first set up less than 90 minutes after the tornado, the physical set up of the Red Cross shelter has changed several times.
One of the most familiar sites at the shelter are Red Cross volunteers wearing their distinctive caps and red vests. Scores of Missouri Southern employees have worked since Sunday nights to set up cots, carry supplies, coordinate the media, answer questions and maintain the flow of information on the University’s WWW.MSSU.EDU website.
Others on campus have worked with Gov. Jay Nixon’s office and The White House to make sure that facilities are prepared for news conferences and meetings, fiber optic lines are laid, questions answered and flowers delivered.
"Any shelter of this type is constantly evolving," Bailey says. "It goes from being a critical needs shelter for people just after the disaster. Then it undergoes transitions as local, state and federal services step in to help get people back on their feet and re-establish their lives.
As one resident of the shelter - an elderly woman - points toward a Red Cross worker, "These people are the heroes,” she says with a quivering voice. “If we didn't have them right now, I don't know where we'd be."
How long will the Red Cross shelter at Missouri Southern? Bailey says the final decision will be up to the Red Cross headquarters.
"If we're down to 50 or so residents a month or more from now, we might not need a facility of this size," he says. “Until then, we will do our best to be good stewards of the space that we've been given."
3950 Newman Road
Joplin, MO 64801-1595
(417) 625-9300
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