NATCHEZ &045;&045; By 1 p.m. today, Red Cross shelters in Natchez should be closed, the last of their temporary residents headed home to assess the damage of Hurricane Ivan, said Red Cross Executive Director John Goodrich.

By Wednesday evening, at least 1,000 people &045;&045; residents evacuated from south Louisiana through the Florida Panhandle &045;&045; were housed in four shelters in Adams County and Concordia Parish, shelters manned by a total of more than 100 volunteers.

But a steady stream of evacuees was already heading home Thursday morning despite warnings that a section of Interstate 10 near Pensacola was damaged and impassable.

Many of the handful who were still left at Natchez High’s Steckler

Multi-Purpose Building by mid-afternoon Thursday expressed their thanks for Natchez’s warm welcome.

&uot;But we’ve been here for two days,&uot; said Joan Eneione, who evacuated from New Orleans to Natchez with no fewer than 30 family members. &uot;We’re ready to get home.&uot;

That was true for Darren and Mary Payne and their children as well, although they couldn’t reach anyone back in Niceville, Fla., to ask about roads or structural damage.

&uot;We’d like to hear what’s happening, but everybody who was there has left,&uot; Darren Payne said.

Inside the Steckler shelter Thursday, the hectic buzz of Wednesday had diminished to barely a whisper, with only 40 people left compared to the maximum of 400 Wednesday.

Among those still left, but due to leave later Thursday, was Russe Manieri Scott and her 98-year-old aunt Veronica Manieri, both of Bay St. Louis.

Scott said that after seeing how nervous her aunt became while weathering Hurricane Georges in 1998, she wasn’t about to let her go through the same thing again.

Traveling north, they stopped in Natchez Tuesday but found no hotel rooms and ended up camping at a Natchez Trace park. That’s where local residents stopping by notified them of the shelter.

Police helped them find their way to the shelter; a volunteer from Community Chapel Church of God even found Manieri an adjustable bed to sleep on. At a laundrymat, a stranger offered to wash and fold their clothes for free.

&uot;Everybody in town has been just wonderful,&uot; Scott said. &uot;If we ever do decide to leave Bay St. Louis, we’re moving to Natchez.

&uot;I don’t know the people’s names&uot; who helped us, she said. &uot;But they’ll be in my prayers for the rest of my life.&uot;