Local News - December 2002

Response proves community’s strength

By JACOB RUDOLPH, Staff Writer

December 11, 2002 - DENVER — Long after the sun melted the ice from last week’s storm, many East Lincoln residents were still without power.

Some still are.

The strength of a community, however, is not determined by how quickly it recovers from an emergency, but how quickly it responds.

As residents woke Thursday morning to felled trees and downed power lines, volunteer emergency workers from the East Lincoln Rescue Squad were responding to calls.

By that afternoon, volunteers from the American Red Cross were preparing to open an emergency shelter for East Lincoln residents.

At a time when roads were continuing to ice over, and the entire region was grinding to a halt, volunteers and a few shop owners in Denver were working overtime for their community.

A hot meal in a time of need

Volunteers outnumbered citizens-in-need when the East Lincoln Rescue Squad opened its doors to the community Friday evening.

The rescue squad command post was built to house an emergency shelter, and the American Red Cross set up such a shelter, prepared to house 100 people.

Alfonzo Mclean, the Red Cross Volunteer in charge of organizing the shelter, is also an East Lincoln volunteer firefighter.

“We had a shelter set up at Beth Haven Baptist Church [Thursday] night,” Mclean said, “but no one came. We decided to move it here, because it’s on the main highway.”

The Highway 16 location yielded slightly better results. There was concern, however, when nobody showed after a few hours.

Ross Bulla, public information officer for the East Lincoln Rescue Squad, was worried people were getting the wrong message from the flashing marquee, which advertised the shelter.

“We’re offering this for everybody,” Bulla said, “not just what people call ‘the needy.’ Because almost everyone is needy right now.”

The spirits of the volunteers, however, were not dampened by the low turnout. Laughter and conversation filled the hall, and heads craned in hope whenever a car’s headlights shown into the window.

One volunteer, DeeDie Martin of Lincolnton, was glad she could be there, even if no one showed.

“I felt it was important to do something, so I asked what I could do,” Martin said with a smile. “I just wanted to help. That’s why I’m here.”

As the weekend fell and many residents were still powerless, the East Lincoln shelter began to draw a crowd.

Despite the initial low turnout, the Red Cross continued to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner to anyone in the community who needed a warm meal, and offer cots to anyone who needed a warm night’s sleep.

According to Matt Brown, East Lincoln Rescue Squad assistant chief, the Red Cross staffed the shelter 24 hours a day, and as more time passed, more people showed.

“There have been a few elderly people come in to stay overnight,” Brown said. “Mostly people are coming in to take a shower and eat a hot meal, then going back home.”

One Denver resident, Amy Augello, said she had been doing just that. After eating bologna sandwiches for three days, she decided it was time for a hot meal and a shower.

“I have well water, so I can’t even flush my toilet,” Augello said. “I come in for the hot meals, but I haven’t been sleeping here.”

Augello, who said she has never been this long without power, remained positive about the situation she found herself in.

“If it happens, it happens,” she said. “It’s Mother Nature, and you can’t very well stop her.”

Business as usual

Nick Hudnall, owner of Triangle Ace Hardware in Denver, fired up his generator and, as always, opened his doors at 8 a.m. Thursday morning.

The usual opening of his store came as no surprise to Hudnall or his regular customers, who poured in to stock up on everything from batteries to snow sleds.

The hardware store was open for business during the power outages following Hurricane Hugo, so Hudnall and his customers knew what to expect.

As shelves began to empty, the hardware store placed an additional order to stock up on emergency supplies.

By Friday night, Hudnall was sold-out of “C” batteries, green propane tanks and kerosene wicks. The store was also running low on other items, such as starter logs and kerosene lamps.

By Friday night, nearby grocery stores, also running on power generators, were running low on items, such as staple foods and starter logs.

Lynne Conrad, a store employee, said the problem with restocking their shelves was the wide scope of the storm.

With ice bludgeoning states from Texas to Virginia, warehouses were forced to spread resources throughout the region, thinning the delivery of certain emergency items.

Hudnall’s past experience dealing with emergencies, however, kept most items his customers needed on the shelves.

“The key is to reach a good balance between what you need for an emergency and what you need on a regular basis,” Conrad said. “If we had this to do over again, we probably wouldn’t do too much different.”

Aside from its usual business, the hardware store became a makeshift information center during the storm.

“We’re one of the only ones open around here, so people have been calling us for a lot of different things,” Conrad said. “People have been asking where the power’s on, and wondering what else is open.”

Hudnall expects to be answering questions for a while, even after power is restored. As people who fled their homes during the storm return, he said, many of them will return to frozen and broken pipes.

And Hudnall will be there to answer all their questions. A small price to pay, he said, for what the residents of East Lincoln have given him over the past 17 years.

“The community’s been good to us and we’ve got to be good to it,” Hudnall said. “It’s that simple.”

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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