PORT RICHEY - Sheila Hultgren paused on her way to deliver bagged lunches to evacuees.
Prepackaged peanut butter and jelly. A cup of peaches. A snack-sized pack of Goldfish crackers. Never mind that Monday's lunch was the same as Sunday's dinner.
"Do you have a Big Mac on you?" 56-year-old Hultgren, a Red Cross volunteer, asked a stranger. "I haven't been out of here for two and a half days."
After two nights of sleeping on floors, two days of bathing from sinks and three afternoons of wondering how hard Frances was pounding homes, some of the 600 folks at the Chasco Elementary emergency shelter were getting a little punchy.
There were 2,300 people still in Pasco County shelters after noon Monday. People were free to return home, but the shelters were open a third night.
"Oh! There they are!" screamed 6-year-old Gerald Ginnings as he raced across the slippery second-floor breezeway toward a pack of children who had poked their heads out of a classroom.
Hide and seek. Go fish. War. Tag. Rubber-band shooting. Just plain running.
While folks downstairs packed up their belongings, eager to get home and inspect, this pack of children just wanted to play.
"It's so fun," said 11-year-old Jennifer Patria of the shelter experience. Much better than being cloistered at home.
"Kind of like being at summer camp," said Hultgren, who was inspired to volunteer for the Red Cross after seeing its work after the World Trade Center collapse. Everyone lives a little closer. Everyone talks a little more. And everyone bathes a little less. "It's good for everyone to experience shelters," Hultgren said.
By 1 p.m. when rain let up a bit, evacuees began gathering their belongings and heading toward the parking lot.
"When do you think you're going to be leaving?" a woman asked 30-year-old Vincenza Alagna of Holiday.
"I'm not leaving until they say the shelter's closed," Alagna said, her fist holding 3-year-old A.J. Alagna's hand. With a house that floods, the mother of two was resigned to staying in a dry place, even if it wasn't home.
"It's stressful. The kids get antsy," Alagna said. One thing she recognized during Charley was that people with kids should not set up house in shelter rooms with people without kids.
Volunteer Nancy Harris said those are the kinds of things shelter workers look for. You decrease the chances of frayed nerves when you listen and look for ways to make people the most comfortable in an uncomfortable situation.
"This was just great," said a cheerful but tired 87-year-old Alexander "Scott" Grant as his wife, Gladys, 85, sought help from a volunteer willing to move their belongings back into a car.
Grant sat himself down and rested on his cane.
In 64 years of marriage, this storm gave the Grants their first reason for sleeping side-by-side on the floor. Though neither complained, Gladys Grant admitted she had only two things on her mind as she returned to their Hudson home.
