In the Sunday issue of The Natchez Democrat the lead story listed Angie Brown as the Director of the Adams County Chapter of the American Red Cross, unfortunately that was an error as I, John Goodrich, was the Director at that time.

What the story failed to take into account the tremendous outpouring that Natchez and Adams County residents showed. Stan Owens, who took a leave of absence from the Natchez Fire Department, was the president of the board and worked tirelessly to assure the Chapter met expectations. The late Don Winters, the Disaster Chair, whose preplanning set the tone for the Chapter’s success. Angie Brown, who was a board member, jumped in and took over for Don when health issues forced him to leave the ongoing operations. Other board members also took time from their jobs and families to insure that Chapter operation met the needs of the community. Steve Sumpter, a local resident, basically lived at the Steckler Shelter, where he ran the wash machines and dryers keeping towels and other washables handy. He worked 20 hour days, and when he wasn’t running the laundry was doing whatever needed to be done. Dr Ken Drane and his wife Cindy, both nurses at the time, moved their travel trailer outside the shelter so the medical response was available. Philip Heisser, an evacuee from New Orleans, became a leader of the shelter residents. He helped maintain order and organized teams to assist the shelter workers and do whatever to maintain the shelter. Fortunately Philip is now a Natchez resident and works for the school district. The Natchez, Adams County School system, provided the Steckler Building as the primary shelter, the cafeteria staff under the leadership of the late Mrs. McCabe provided an amazing number of meals for the shelters. The ladies from the Department of Health Services staffed the shelters with administrative services. A total list of names would be impossible to create. Some Adams County residents volunteered a couple of hours, others were there the entire time period, almost daily people were bring food, clothes, toiletries and other thing they thought were needed.

As the impact from Katrina increased, the Chapter opened an additional four shelters. The numbers in the shelters reached the neighborhood of 10,000 served during the period with perhaps another 10,000 being served by the Chapter who were passing through. The Chapter opened and maintained a warehouse which managed supplies for the Chapter’s shelters and Concordia Parish, as well as other communities affected by Katrina.

The one activity which nobody seems to wanted to address (including the National Red Cross) was the financial center opened and operated by the Chapter. The Chapter opened a special checking account, made arrangements for money to be in the local banks, made arrangements for security. Clients were issued checks up to $1,500 and were able to go to one of the local banks and cash them, and over the period of three day dispensed over $13 million dollars. This was done without the problems that other Chapters faced.

Chapter activities concerning Katrina and Rita (which affected Adams County more), continued for almost six months. The Adams County response to the 2005 Hurricane season was much more than people, it was a community coming together in a time of great need!

 

John P Goodrich

Executive Director during Hurricane Season 2005

Adams County Chapter American Red Cross