The Wrath of Hurricane Dennis Part Two

The affect of overcrowding was taking its toll. For many in the shelter, the calm was over; and just as Hurricane Dennis was approaching, bitterness and strife was running rampant in the shelter. The pressure was on! The smiles, kind words, and giving hearts had quickly turned to frowns, frustrations and selfishness. Words of protests seemed to echo throughout the shelter:

“My family and I were here first! Why did you give that family more space than we have?” A white family and a black family argued. “Move that blanket and give us more space!”

“Stop playing in the hallway! Move over to the side!” A woman said to two children, making known her frustrations.

“You don’t have to talk mean to them!” A grandmother said, defending her grandchildren.

“Whose child is this?” Someone asked.

“Keep up with that child!” Said a grandfather to his teenage granddaughters. “She was way over on the other hall. It just so happened that somebody knew our family and brought her to me.” (The child was four years old.)

“Why can’t we carry food out of the cafeteria? You let us carry it out before!” Said a pregnant woman. “I don’t like the way the staff spoke to me, she was rude!”

“Has anyone seen my artistic son? I’m afraid he might be lost.” A mother said, walking hurriedly through the crowd, searching for her son

“Come back here!” A young mother called out to her two-year old daughter who fled her arms, repeatedly, to escape taking a nap. The two-year old was the oldest of the mother’s three children she was caring for at the shelter. She and the children had come to the shelter alone.

“Who’s cooking in here?” Asked one of the staff as she walked frantically down the hallway searching for the perpetrator. “You are not suppose to cook in here!” Someone was cooking on an electric cooker in the hallway.

There were smokers who protested because they were no longer allowed to go outside and have a cigarette smoke. Hurricane Dennis had pushed its way closer toward Mobile, and the doors had been locked shut. It had been several hours since they had smoked a cigarette and some of them were having a nicotine fit! (To be continued in my next article)