Retired Frederick policewoman helps Red Cross effort in Mississippi

Thursday, Sept. 15, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Russell

Kelly Russell of Frederick headed south about one week ago, to volunteer for the American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina response. She was partnered with Frederick resident Mark Kreslins and a Connecticut state trooper, Herb Furhman.

Russell said they were assigned to the security and safety division of the relief effort and visited 13 shelters in Jackson, Miss., and Vicksburg, Miss.

Their job was to make sure the shelters were safe and to work with shelter managers to ‘‘make sure their operations are running smoothly,” Russell said.

On Wednesday, Russell said they were finding that the shelters’ safety and security needs had mostly been met.

‘‘...They’ve had adequate exits, fire extinguishers — all those kinds of things where you want to make sure that, when you have people in a large area, it is a safe environment,” she said. ‘‘They have done a beautiful job with that. Security has been of very little issue. The plans that they put in place have actually worked very well in terms of setting these things up and keeping people housed and fed until they can get up on their feet and out again.”

Russell also said the numbers of people staying in the shelters has been reduced dramatically. Larger shelters, such as at the convention centers in Jackson and Vicksburg, initially had thousands of people, she said, but they are now down to 100 or fewer.

‘‘The smaller shelters, like the church shelters, are starting to wind down. They’ve been able to place hundreds and hundreds of people, either getting them out of the shelters to family members or other areas where they have people,” she said. ‘‘They’ve also had several services come in to help folks find apartments in the area. A lot of folks are just deciding they are going to stay right where they ended up. A lot of communities are going to have new members, I think.

‘‘A lot of folks were able to go home because power’s coming back up in their areas. If they still have properties intact down there, they’re going down to clean up and move back in.

‘‘...We anticipate probably the vast majority of shelters in this area.... will be closed probably around the end of the month.”

Russell praised the Red Cross operation.

‘‘I will tell you that at this point I am so incredibly impressed with the Red Cross. Their level of organization, the command center that they have set up here — it is a beautiful thing. I would encourage anybody who wants to do anything to please call the Red Cross, whether it’d be to make a donation or to volunteer your time,” Russell said.

Russell also encouraged Frederick area residents to volunteer at a Red Cross site established at 1207 East St., in Frederick to work with displaced evacuees of the Gulf Coast.

‘‘If you’re not in a position to actually leave for a period of time and come down and help here, certainly the shelter there is going to have need for people to man the shelter to help out whatever way they can,” Russell said.