The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, January 24, 1996 7 Flood notes —— (continued from page 1) water from residents’ basements. . . College Misericordia housed about 175 students from Wilkes . University, according to dean of students Sr. Jean Mesaros, RSM, “who had received a call shortly before midnight Friday from _ Wilkes’ s dean of students Jane Lampe Groh. The college housed the stu- dents in the Anderson sports center, where they sacked out on oF a Ho} the floor of the lobby, watched = + television in the Cougar’s Den, | played board games, tried to study or shot hoops on one end ‘of the basketball court. ‘The college made sure the “€vacuated students had good hot ‘meals from the cafeteria and snacks, Sr. Mesaros said. » Before the media released the list of evacuation shelters, ~. o» _ two families who had been © of <3 ® evacuees in 1972 showed up at the college. “Even though we “weren't a designated Red Cross evacuation shelter, we let them Joe Hayer, Shavertown, manned the checkout at Insalaco's POST PHOTO/GRACE R. DOVE stay because they had been here Market in Shavertown Saturday morning. A student at Wilkes Dallas High School food service workers Sharon Holdredge and Marguerite Fry manned a slicer before,” Sr. Mesaros said. University, he had helped classmates more to College while preparing supper for about 150 flood evacuees who took shelter at the school Saturday. he i Misericordia from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. before heading to work. Late ‘Evacuees T=) p+ { gh aren Ly - (continued from page 1) Maureen Banks, RN, Saturday's evacuation was a replay of the 1972 Hurricane Agnes flood, when ‘she'was a student nurse at Col- “lege. Misericordia. The college ‘housed a maternity ward and ‘patients from the Nesbitt Memo- rial Hospital in 1972. “I saw the flood reports on tele- vision this morning and came up there to help out,” she said simply. » Working flood duty this week- “end was much simpler than 24 “years ago, Banks said. Setup ina classroom, the infirmary housed three elderly homebound women requiring constant nursing care. Nurses had to improvise supplies and the Red Cross cots were small, _ making it difficult to turn the pa- fi tients. “During Hurricane Agnes we © worked wherever we were needed,” » Banks recalled. “You had to im- . provise a lot. that’s when natural . childbirth really took hold in the ~ area — there was no other choice, no anesthetics.” Back in the school's kitchen . area, food service director Jackie : Shaver, bleary-eyed from pump- } ok ’ 1 + t I (® (] . ing water from her basement most of Friday night, worked with ex- hausted cafeteria workers, most of whom had been up helping move relatives all night. After receiving a telephone call about the evacuation from busi- nessmanager Charlotte Williams at2 a.m. Saturday, Shaver raided the school's supplies to make breakfast. “I have a great staff,” said ‘Shaver, who was in first grade ‘during the 1972 flood. “The evacu- ees are calling us ‘the Back Moun- tain Marriott.“ “It’s just like southern hospitality back here.” Flood evacuee at Dallas High The main challenges were mak- Rushing waters along Lower Demunds Road at ENCON nearly swallowed up the custom duck house that usually sits well off from the stream. Janey, and son, Barry, to the shel- ter from their Kingston home, pressing young Barry into service as a security personat the school. “Gerry Wycallis, Mark Kraynak and I got the staff here at 3a.m. to fire up the boilers and prepare the buildings,” he said. “The Red Cross is using the middle school cafete- ria as a staging area for supplies — cots, cleaning materials, bed- ding and other items. If neces- sary, we could also use it to house evacuees, as was done in 1972.” Giffiths narrowly missed the Agnes flood, but his wife's father, brother and uncle were in it, he said. “We don’t know when the crest will be or how much damage to expect, sowe're prepared tohouse people here for atleast two nights if necessary,” he added. “It’s the school’s response to help the com- thing, There aren't too many things we haven't been exposed to.” Animportant lesson he learned from 1972 was to keep meticu- lous track of all the supplies the school used, so the Red Cross could reimburse the district for them later. The district will pay the custo- dial and food service staff, for which the Red Cross may reim- burse it a portion, but the teach- ers worked as volunteers. “I think we're pretty well orga- nized,” Wycallis said. “There has been tremendous cooperation between the volunteers, staff and the Red Cross. Things have run very smoothly.” Although many others helped, Wyecallis listed board members Ernest Ashbridge, Tom Landon and Maureen Banks; business 1 POST PHOTO/GRACE R. DOVE Shavertown assistant fire chief Tony Kaiser added another request for a pumper to a long list at “Command Central” at the fire hall Friday. Firefighters pulled marathon shifts Friday and Saturday pumping out residents’ basements after more than two inches of rain and massive snowmelt inundated the area. 1 5 «® ¥ ing sure everyone gets the proper munity. all the volunteers have manager Charlotte Williams; 1 nutrition, taking careofevacuees worked hard toaccommodate the buildings and grounds supervi- on special diets and keeping her evacuees’ needs - medical, social sor Mark Kraynak; middle school staffrefreshed. Shaverhadtosend and humanitarian.” principal Tony Martinelli; home out to The Meadows for some For superintendent Gerald and school visitor Joan - Ensure liquid food supplement Wycallis, 1996 was a replay of Mackowski; teachers Mary Alice for her elderly patients. 1972, whenhewas anelementary Frederick, Larry Griffin, John POST PHOTO/GRACE R. DOVE “Youdon'tgetanyspecialtrain- school principal in the district. Doerfler, Donald Hopkins, Jack Shavertown firefighter Matt ing for this type of situation,” she “That experience was helpful,” Wega and Kathy Wega and stu- Pelak took a rare break from a said. “Food servicealways involves he said. “The district has a set of dents Joel Withers, kyle wega, © © : ina flood se Bak POST PHOTO/GRACE R. DOVE ~ pressureandatimeelement. This djsaster plans designed tohandle Ricky Davenport, Barry Griffiths, 12-hour shift pu mping foo Shavertown firefighters Jim Sidorek and Joe Yonckik repaired JH e isn't too different. Fortunately, floods, nuclearemergenciesatthe Pat Hagen and Ami Beallaasvol- water from residents a portable pump Friday night while pulling back-to-back shifts ni before worked inschoolsIworked Berwick plant — just about any- unteers. basements Friday night. pumping flood waters from people’s basements. . in a hospital, so I'm familiar with : some of the special diets.” She planned to keep someone on duty in the kitchen all night in case someone needed adrink ora snack. Working on an hour's sleep in the past two days, Bev Neiman slapped slices of ham into a bak- ing pan. “I deal a good hand,” she wisecracked. She and her husband, Dave, - had been up all night moving an - uncle from his home in Forty Fort. On their way back to Dallas they stopped to pick up their son, - David, who had asked to come - along to the school to help out. 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