oh ... for the LOVE!

Well, just when I think it's settling down and we're closing out ... HA. Teach me to speak so soon ... pride goeth... and all that jazz.

Friday night, two guys are picked up at a bar d&d (drunk and disorderly, not dungeons and dragons ). They're both brought back to the shelter, pack their stuff, and away they go.

Sunday morning ... SUNDAY. MORNING. ... fistfight (over cigarettes!) resulting in one broken jaw, one night in jail, and one expulsion from the shelter.

Today. ROTD (rumor of the day) is that Green Acres (the mega-Baptist church ... well, megachurch that's Baptist; I dunno what a mega-Baptist is) is closing down their shelter (the only other one in town besides us) and sending their remaining 58 people over here. On top of our 80 remaining. How. Ever: The Red Cross shelter manager hasn't heard that ... but the National Guard guys are saying they'll be here midweek.

So. It's just consistently inconsistent. Which HAS consistently been the case. :)

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Oh! And! The Goodwill that we've been working with - serving the whole city, and especially our shelter residents - had a fire on Friday night, and lost their entire warehouse. They're closed down for a few days trying to see what they can recover, and will have to gut the place and start over, according to the manager I talked to on Saturday. (Good news here is that none of their staff was injured, they got everyone out, and none of their special needs adults was working that night shift.)

We'd intended to take our remaining donations back to GW at the end of our shelter run anyway -- people of the church, and the entire town, have been so overwhelmingly generous that we have far more in the way of supplies than we can even use for our residents. The plan was that we'd re-donate, and then evacuees who remain in town could go to GW for x period of time (a few months, I think) and pick up whatever else they still need as they resettle, free of charge.

Looks like GW will really NEED our re-donations now, to rebuild THEIR stock.

What a bizarre thing. The manager said her concern in the whole thing was that they weren't going to be able to provide for the Katrina families like they had been ... the whole community is so focused on supporting the new members of the community. It's really quite remarkable ... and as I've said, continues to offset the brawlin' stories that filter through.

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Update:

We're getting ONE family (3) who were displaced from the house they'd found (it was a live-here-til-we-sell-it, and it sold), and ONE family (6) who've been living in their van in a town farther east in Tx (Athens). And THAT'S. IT.

I talked to the Red Cross office. And the regional director. BOTH of whom assured me TWICE EACH that we are NOT getting any more residents. Not. No matter what the national guard officer at our door is saying.
- No more residents from the other Tyler shelter.
- No more residents from any other shelters or locations.
- No more residents from any of the cities set to evacuate should Tropical Storm Rita take full shape in these already affected areas. Yes, he's telling people - volunteers and residents - that his 'buddy who's a storm chaser for the Dallas tv station' is saying that Rita's going to end up sending more evacuees here. That may be, but why don't we WAIT to see where it actually FALLS first? Good grief.

Of course, now that local and federal officials are agreeing (how did THAT happen?!) that New Orleans is still not habitable, our folks won't be returning as soon as they'd hoped. But they know our routine and regulations, and we are already caring for them fully here. There is even a job fair tomorrow, and more housing has been secured for families who are applying to stay here in town.

But that guard needs to hush it; it's not like folks need MORE anxiety. I believe the altercations of the last few days suggest that we could use a little more guarding and a little less rumor-mongering. Sheesh. He's 6'6" and packing heat; anyone care to tell him I said so? :-)