The evacuee shelters on campus were closed around 5 p.m. on Monday, and evacuees have been transported to more permanent accommodations after 55 days in the shelters, according to Michael Delaune, director of University Relations. John Webb, American Red Cross shelter manager at Nicholls, said that a joint decision was made by the community, the University and the Red Cross to close the Nicholls shelter.
“The decision was made to amalgamate it (the Nicholls shelter) with another shelter so the resources can be put there to help the remaining people to find an alternate accommodation,” Webb said.
A few buses transported evacuees to Federal Emergency Management Agency sites across the state where trailers have been set up for families. Some evacuees were transported to the East Houma Recreation Center shelter. Others are either making their own arrangements, such as finding apartments and houses or finding family and friends to stay with, according to Delaune.
“In a week we were able to bring alternate accommodations to 250 people,” Webb said. “People have solved their own problems, and we helped them solve other problems. Only 40 people are going to another shelter. Everybody’s out; they’re all taken care of.”
Evacuees who had no place to go were offered the FEMA trailers, according to Delaune.
“FEMA and the Red Cross worked closely with local volunteers to place the evacuees in more permanent housing situations, and the fact that we had to move some of them to another shelter in Houma shows that the work isn’t done yet. They’ll still be working hard to place these people in more permanent housing.”
The shelter operation as a whole has been using both Shaver and Stopher gyms. Since before Rita Delaune said that there have been no evacuees living in Shaver Gym. Shaver was used mainly to house supplies and serve food.
“Stopher is where the evacuees have been living most recently,” Delaune said.
The University is still in the process of assessing the gyms for damage, if any. After the assessment has been done, the University is going to return the facilities to their intended use.
“If there is any damage, we’ll get the facilities back to the condition that they need to be and get things back to normal, so to speak,” Delaune said.
Delaune said that the facilities were not designed to be disaster shelters for the two months they endured.
“Shelters are very temporary,” Delaune said. ” No disaster shelter is designed to hold people for that long. These were extraordinary circumstances, and they (the evacuees) had to stay in these accommodations longer than they anticipated.”
Delaune said that he is glad the University has been able to help the evacuees, not only by accommodating them, but also by making their time here as “comfortable as possible.”
“I’m glad that the University has been able to assist these people who needed this help, but I’m glad to have it (the University) back at the same time,” Delaune said. “My hat’s off to the students, faculty and staff.
