A Red Cross First, the RV Shelter

DOVE members Carolyn and Jack Salmon (#63996) spent the winter in Pensacola, FL.  While there they have served on the DAT for Northwest Florida Chapter and picked up some additional training.  On Saturday, March 13, they were taking a day-long Family Care class.  The class had just settled down after lunch when a call came in from Emergency Management requesting the ARC to set up a shelter for people evacuated from their homes because of a wildfire in a partially-developed area west of the city. 

Jack and Carolyn drove out to open the designated shelter, a public middle school.  No one came.  Then suddenly RVs began to appear, one after another.  They had been ordered to leave a military recreational area in the path of the fire.  The school agreed to open a large parking lot and Jack and Carolyn helped the RVers (some of whom were Escapees) settle into their “shelter” area.  Twenty-two rigs (some 45 people) eventually pulled in to the first-ever Red Cross “shelter” for RVers. 

Local chapter leaders (and a visiting National representative) had no particular experience with RVs and were not sure what to do:  there are Red Cross policies for people burned out of their homes, flooded out of communities, etc. – but not for people in self-contained mobile units who have been forcibly separated from their temporary facilities.  Look for a new policy that says “feed them pizza and join the party.”  That’s what we did!