Antelope Street Extension Residents Seek Shelter At Unity Presbyterian Primary
One of the primary reasons for residents in that area moving without hesitation into the shelter is bitter experience. The last time heavy rains fell, in late 2015, many residents lost all their possessions when floodwaters inundated the Southside. News Five spoke to two women making use of the facility who explained that they didn’t move out of panic, but out of necessity.
Mike Rudon
“Give me an idea of the situation that you live in which required you to come into the shelter when you heard the storm was coming.”
Shelter Seeker 1
“As you can see this is the Antelope Street Extension area, and couple months ago when we experienced three day rain the water came extremely high and so therefore since it is a tropical storm that is coming we didn’t want to take any chance of staying in the home because the water was at least to my waste high where I lived, that’s why we decided to come out to the shelter.”
Mike Rudon
“Talk to us about the situation here at the shelter that you met. We were talking to some people upstairs and they are sayi8ng that there isn’t any food at the shelter and people are suppose to bring in three day worth of food.”
Shelter Seeker 1
“Well they can speak for themselves but I have a relatively large family so from last night I went into preparation to get some canned food, making sure that my medicine bag was full, I did some baking to ensure that we have food and water for at least the next three days.”
Mike Rudon
“Are you worried about leaving your home alone at a time like this?”
Shelter Seeker 1
“Not really, I live two blocks away and I actually have someone that will be staying in the home because it is about six feet off the ground, so I will have someone looking after the house while we are over here.
Mike Rudon
“Do you have any sense of panic about the storm itself, because they are saying heavy rains and heavy winds.”
Shelter Seeker 1
“Not really, I mean to go to the extent of panicking no, and this is a very sound school so we can rest assure that we are in a safe place, while my place is safe and I will personally like to say to Mr. and Mrs. Bessen who runs this place a big thank you to them because it have been well over twelve years since I have seek shelter, so to know that the school has opened up to the residents of Antelope Extension, I would like to say thank you to them.”
Shelter Seeker 2
“I decided to come to the shelter because this is area where you know as a little bit of rain, it get flooded like the last time when the rain came we got water up to our waste, then especially on the “London bridges” at the back people can’t come out and I like there. And I wish that they would have opened the shelter from last night because I am somebody who didn’t sleep there from last night, so when they said they were going to upon them up, I said okay I will be here, and I prepared everything from last night, you know a little Johnny cake, whatever was really important and things to eat and drink.”
Mike Rudon
“Are you worried about your home, because you will be here for at least two or three days?”
Shelter Seeker 2
“I don’t worry about my home; the most important thing is my kids. If anything happens to my home I will get back one somehow.”
