Red Cross coordinator comes home to Arcadia, Florida \r\n\r\nBill Sullivan headed Alabama shelter for Katrina storm victims \r\n\r\n\r\nDESOTO COUNTY--\"It\'s good to be back.\" \r\n\r\nThis simple, heartfelt statement was made by Bill Sullivan, the DeSoto County coordinator of the American Red Cross Southwest Florida Chapter, who just returned from a nearly month-long tour of duty heading a shelter nicknamed \"Fort Apache\" in Citronelle, Ala. for Hurricane Katrina victims. Up to 160 people a day sought shelter at the church. \r\n\r\nCitronelle is a small Deep South town similar in size to Arcadia, with approximately 4,000 residents, Sullivan said. It is 32 miles north of Mobile, Ala. \r\n\r\nOn August 31, Sullivan took charge of the Citronelle United Methodist Church shelter after the Red Cross asked him to go because of his experience dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Charley in DeSoto County. \r\n\r\n\"That experience was the most helpful,\" Sullivan said, who also had just completed family-service supervisor training. He said the Charley experience had taught him \"how to fend for yourself and how to utilize community resources and make those contacts.\" \r\n\r\nOne contact that came in handy for Sullivan was DeSoto Memorial Hospital. \r\n\r\nThe hospital came to his aid in those crucial first days after his arrival, Sullivan said, by sending eight trucks of desperately-needed medical supplies. Sullivan had arrived in town with only the first aid kit in his fanny pack. Many of the shelter victims had legs covered in ant bites and scratches from debris. One woman was down to her last insulin syringe and an ambulance ride was 45 minutes away. Another woman went into labor and was rushed to a hospital. \r\n\r\nSullivan readily admitted that the toughest part of the experience was dealing with the emotions stirred up by hearing the victims\' stories and seeing the catastrophic damage. \r\n\r\n\"This is definitely the worst thing I\'ve ever seen in my life,\" Sullivan said. \"It\'s been an emotional roller coaster, to say the least. Just trying to stay strong--only the strong stay.\" Family, friends and volunteers from DeSoto and Sarasota counties bolstered Sullivan\'s spirits with calls and support. \r\n\r\nHe said it was particularly difficult hearing residents\' stories about pets they had to leave behind, as he is an animal lover himself. Sullivan told the story of one shelteree, a 77-year-old woman who had undergone brain surgery a month prior to Hurricane Katrina, who survived in her attic up to her neck in water for two days before being airlifted out by a helicopter to a section of I-10 that was above water. There she waited two days, suffering burns from the asphalt, before being taken to the shelter. Yet Sullivan said the woman was in high spirits when she arrived at the shelter, even though the helicopter ride alone could have killed her, medical experts said, because of the soft spots on her head after surgery. \r\n\r\n\"She was just thankful to be alive and get out of there,\" Sullivan said. \"This was typical of the stories you heard every day.\" \r\n\r\nStorm victims at the church were thankful to Sullivan for bringing order, supplies and medicines to the church, which they said was disintegrating into chaos. Most of them were from New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss. \r\n\r\nRichard Stokes, who came from New Orleans, said tensions were running so high at the shelter before Sullivan arrived, that \"everybody was ready to leave.\" But then \"Bill stepped in, got everyone cots\" and worked to make sure everyone got what they needed. \"Bill is like God\'s gift,\" Stokes said. \"He never turned his back on nobody here. He\'ll give you the shirt off his back. He\'s the man.\" \r\n\r\nSullivan said he slept only about 10 hours his first week, and even those were just cat naps, \"with one eye open. Everyone was scared and tensions were just real high.\" He said rumors that the shelter was housing looters had created bad feelings between the community and church groups helping the victims, leading to cars being keyed at the shelter one night. \r\n\r\nThe shelter was nicknamed \"Fort Apache,\" Sullivan said, because of the many problems he faced his first two weeks with shelter victims and staff who left him. \r\n\r\nShelteree Elena Brown, 62, who came from Kiln, Miss. with her 87-year-old father, was forced to leave a Holiday Inn in Mobile to make room for Florida police who were aiding the disaster-relief effort, credits Bill Sullivan with saving the lives of her father and her. \r\n\r\n\"We are alive because of him,\" Brown said. \"They\'ve been feeding us, giving us medication. We\'re doing okay now.\" \r\n\r\nBrown is the fulltime caregiver of her father, who uses a wheelchair and has a heart condition. Brown herself was ill with a respiratory infection, which complicated her severe asthma and many allergies. She said Sullivan had gotten them all the medications they needed, gave them money and arranged for her car, which had broken down on the way to the shelter, to be fixed at one of the local garages for free. \r\n\r\n\"I\'m very appreciative of Bill, he has met the needs of so many different people here, so many demands,\" Brown said. \"The good Lord must want us to keep on living because He sent us here.\" \r\n\r\nSullivan\'s supervisor, Becky Maxwell of the American Red Cross, said in a performance evaluation of Sullivan that \"he was asked to manage a shelter which had various challenges (racial tensions, health issues, overcrowding, etc.) and he was able to turn the situation around. He was able to tap into the various community resources and build a sense of family at the shelter.\" \r\n\r\nSullivan said he created a general population area where 99 people stayed across the street from the church, and a special-needs section in the church common area close to the kitchen and bathrooms for 40 to 50 people. These people were on oxygen, insulin or other medications. A special area was made outside for pets. \r\n\r\nSome of these shelterees had been to three or four other shelters before landing in Citronelle, Sullivan said. Most of them arrived with only the clothes on their backs, a local newspaper in Citronelle reported. Sullivan said he \"begged in the community for supplies\" and local people brought so many clothes, that the leftover clothes were donated to Goodwill and other items sent in care packages to others in worse areas, the article stated. Ten churches rotated feeding the victims, serving nearly 7,000 meals during the time Sullivan was there. \r\n\r\nThe shelter closed on Sept. 19. Storm victim Richard Stokes was the last one to leave, Sullivan noted. Stokes, who was at the shelter when Sullivan arrived, is staying in Citronelle, where the community has found him a house and his children already are registered in school. \r\n\r\nSullivan said he feels good about what he and the community were able to accomplish by reuniting storm victims with families and working with agencies such as HUD to find housing for them. \r\n\r\n\"At least I can say our 160 clients were well taken care of, with four staff members,\" he said. \r\n\r\nSullivan added, \"I just want to thank everyone (in DeSoto). If people didn\'t have their insulin and needles and medicines, they would\'ve died.\" He was particularly grateful to DeSoto Memorial and the Arcadia Fire Department for bringing the medical supplies. He also thanked the School District for its help. \r\n\r\nSullivan said, \"I hope I never have to go through something like this again.\" \r\n\r\nFor now, he wants to concentrate on his work in DeSoto County again and carry out the many projects he has planned, including forming a military support group for families and soldiers of Arcadia\'s National Guard unit that will be heading to Iraq later this year. \r\n\r\nYou can e-mail Sullivan at sullivanw@usa.redcross.org or call 494-2348. The Red Cross office is located at 107 West Oak Street Suite, Suite 212, in Arcadia. \r\n\r\nYou can e-mail Laura A. Schmid at lschmid@sun-herald.com. \r\n\r\n\r\nBy LAURA A. SCHMID \r\n\r\nDESOTO NEWS EDITOR