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Neighborhood report

Storm evacuees rely on recovery center

The Hillsborough County Disaster Recovery Center is open through October, but it might reopen if needed again in the future.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published October 21, 2005

BRANDON - There was no time to think.

When Katrina came, Alma Bartolome of Gretna, La., took her three kids and drove. The adrenaline carried her from Louisiana all the way to Brandon, where she was one of hundreds of hurricane evacuees to arrive at the door of Hillsborough County's Disaster Recovery Center.

To Bartolome, 35, the center was a godsend.

"From the moment you get out of the car and they have all these men out there waiting for you, it's amazing," she said. "They made me feel like a jewel. I don't feel displaced at all, because everyone's willing to help."

The center was set up by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department and the Red Cross, after HUD regional director Karen Jackson Sims learned that nearly 10,000 evacuees had arrived in the Tampa Bay area.

"We realized we had to do something to help these people," said Dexter Barge, the county's director of housing and code enforcement.

Barge had 10 days to set up the center. He scrounged for space, eventually setting it up in his own offices on Windhorst Road, off Falkenburg Road. To get a little more room, he said, he leased out a warehouse that shares a wall with his offices.

The center will remain open until the end of the month. But Barge said he is looking into making it a semipermanent fixture.

"We're going to design it in such a way that if we ever need a (disaster center) again ... we'll have it laid out so that the agencies can just move in, plug in and get to work," he said.

The center is set up like a job fair, with different agencies occupying different tables. Evacuees can make their way from station to station, getting everything from psychological counseling and food stamps to furniture and housing.

"You have what, three children?" an aid worker asked Bartolome. "You probably want two extra kitchen chairs. How many dressers are you going to need?"

Nearby, Michael Anthony, 37, waited to talk to Catholic Charities, with whom the county has contracted to coordinate housing, transportation and supplies for evacuees.

Anthony said he'd left his home near Pascagoula, Miss., after winds destroyed it.

"Wasn't nothing there," he said. "Got to make a new start."

Anthony, a steel worker who builds bridges, is staying with a friend in Tampa, but he said he wants to go back to Mississippi as soon as he can.

"My family tree, the roots are still there," he said. "The wind mighta blown a few leaves off, but they are still there."

Meanwhile, Alma Bartolome worked her way from one station to another.

She said she was trying to just "live in the moment," and not think about her husband, who had gone back to Gretna, or the collapsed roof and house full of mold waiting for him there.

She was delighted to find that she could apply for food stamps at the center. "I was ready today to go to Plant City to apply for food stamps, and they were here," she said.

Bartolome said the center offered her more than convenience - it made her feel less helpless.

"I don't feel I have to be with my head down," she said. "I feel I can continue with my pride."

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at srosenbaum@sptimes.com or 661-2442.

WHERE: The Disaster Recovery Center is at 10119 Windhorst Road in Brandon, off Falkenburg Road (near the Department of Motor Vehicles).

WHEN: Open weekdays in October, from 9 a.m to 4:30 p.m.

WHAT: Evacuees from areas affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita can get access to a range of services, including school registration, counseling, housing, food stamps, job assistance and clothing.

[Last modified October 20, 2005, 10:29:05]