Situation Status from a Hurricane Evacuee Shelter

[Shamgar]

I copied this from another forum. Many of the people that go into these evacuee shelters are real trash. Most should be blown out ot sea.

Sherri Hagerhjelm, RN, volunteered her time to help Gustav evacuees at the shelter in Shreveport, La. During her volunteer hours she was required to be escorted by a National Guardsmen armed with an assult rifle to ensure her safety. In a letter to the editor of a south Louisiana newspaper, Hagerhjelm offers a unique perspective on evacuation centers:


Dear Editor,

I am a nurse who has just completed volunteer working approximately 120 hours as the clinic director in a Hurricane Gustav evacuation shelter in Shreveport, Louisiana over the last 7 days. I would love to see someone look at the evacuee situation from a new perspective. Local and national news channels have covered the evacuation and "horrible" conditions the evacuees had to endure during Hurricane Gustav.

True - some things were not optimal for the evacuation and the shelters need some modification.

At any point, does anyone address the responsibility (or irresponsibility) of the evacuees?

Does it seem wrong that one would remember their cell phone, charger, cigarettes and lighter but forget their child's insulin?

Is something amiss when an evacuee gets off the bus, walks immediately to the medical area, and requests immediate free refills on all medicines for which they cannot provide a prescription or current bottle (most of which are narcotics)?

Isn't the system flawed when an evacuee says they cannot afford a $3 copay for a refill that will be delivered to them in the shelter yet they can take a city-provided bus to Wal-mart, buy 5 bottles of Vodka, and return to consume them secretly in the shelter?

Is it fair to stop performing luggage checks on incoming evacuees so as not to delay the registration process but endanger the volunteer staff and other persons with the very realistic truth of drugs, alcohol and weapons being brought into the shelter?

Am I less than compassionate when it frustrates me to scrub emesis from the floor near a nauseated child while his mother lies nearby, watching me work 26 hours straight, not even raising her head from the pillow to comfort her own son?

Why does it insense me to hear a man say "I ain't goin' home 'til I get my FEMA check" when I would love to just go home and see my daughters who I have only seen 3 times this week?

Is the system flawed when the privately insured patient must find a way to get to the pharmacy, fill his prescription and pay his copay while the FEMA declaration allows the uninsured person to acquire free medications under the disaster rules?

Does it seem odd that the nurse volunteering at the shelter is paying for childcare while the evacuee sits on a cot during the day as the shelter provides a "daycare"?

Have government entitlements created this mentality and am I facilitating it with my work?

Will I be a bad person, merciless nurse or poor Christian if I hesitate to work at the next shelter because I have worked for 7 days being called every curse word imaginable, feeling threatened and fearing for my personal safety in the shelter?

Exhausted and battered,

Sherri Hagerhjelm, RN

[Kylefromomaha]

That is ridiculous.

When my best friend and I were homeless in Los Angeles, most of the shelters had security guards and metal detectors to stop that crap. Some of them wont even let you in if you were an addict and not in a rehab program and you were not allowed in if you were a registered sex offender in some shelters.

AND THAT WAS LA!

Who would have thought Skid row would be safer to be in than an evacuee shelter during a hurricane. I sure hope there wasn't a a lot of kids who got screwed up by some pervert or something like that.