Parish agencies met to organize storm relief efforts

Published 12:00 am Saturday, September 17, 2005

VIDALIA, La. &045; Representatives from locals agencies throughout Concordia Parish met Thursday morning for a simple purpose &045; organizing their efforts to help evacuees of Hurricane Katrina.

&uot;We have an enormous amount of help coming from the community here,&uot; Concordia Parish Sheriff Randy Maxwell said. &uot;But organization is the key. That’s what we need right now. We wanted to meet with all the public officials to delegate responsibilities.&uot;

Those officials, including representatives from Ferriday, Vidalia, the sheriff’s office and several other local agencies, will continue to meet on a weekly basis for the foreseeable future, Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland said.

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&uot;This is going to be a long-term situation,&uot; Copeland said. &uot;That’s what we’re looking at &045; it’s mind-boggling, the ripple effect from this.&uot;

The latest step in providing for evacuees was the opening of a new shelter Thursday at First Baptist Church in Ferriday.

&uot;We were waiting to open this shelter until things had settled down some,&uot; church pastor Wayne Gray said. &uot;A lot of these people are coming from hotels they can’t afford anymore or from houses with too many people in them.&uot;

Gray said several people had come to the shelter from family member’s housese where there are 30 or more people.

About 30 evacuees from the Concordia Parish Community Center will be moved to the new shelter, Civil Defense Director Morris White said.

&uot;This is turning into a long-term shelter situation,&uot; White said. &uot;We need to have fewer people in each shelter for that, so we’re trying to thin them out.&uot;