It was Labor Day weekend and hurricane Elena was forecast to come our way and it looked very much like it was going to be bad. I was the local volunteer fire chief in my area at the time so it wasn’t unusual that a fire control dispatcher called me on my portable radio to advise me of the worsening weather conditions. I asked him to tone out my station and have all available firefighters report to the station immediately. When I arrived at the fire station one of the first things we did was to get out the SOP (standard operating procedure) book and see just exactly what our responsibilities were. It was all pretty standard fare but there was one procedure listed that said we were to “Assist Red Cross with evacuation”. The evacuation center for my area was the elementary school about four blocks from our fire station. I traded my chief’s car for the 4 wheel drive brush truck and drove up to the shelter to see what the situation was and determine what we needed to do to assist the Red Cross.

It was dark outside when we pulled into the front parking lot of the school I could see that there were already people there that had been evacuated from the surrounding low areas that were under mandatory evacuation orders. What I saw next was a little disturbing, the doors of the shelter were still locked and there was no Red Cross personal or school officials any where in site. Now this was in the days before cell phones so all I had was my 2 channel fire department radio for communication. I called back to my station and asked one of my Lt’s to call the school janitor that lived near by the school. He did so and the janitor quickly came and opened up the doors to allow every one in.

I all too soon realized that there was NO Red Cross for the moment and that any assistance for these people would be a solo effort from my fire fighters for the immediate future. Again I called the LT. that was at the fire station and told him to move all of our available personal to the school for shelter detail. I had about 25 volunteer firefighters at my disposal but some of them were out assisting with the general evacuation and were not immediately available to help. I located the school principles office and commandeered it for my use. It turned out to be a great place to command and control the school from as it had telephones and the school intercom system. My first phone calls went out to a few local agencies in a plea for assistance. I talked to some great people at the Sun City Center local ham radio club who said they would send a volunteer to my location with radio gear. The local sheriffs department was already busy with evacuations and told me that they had no help available unless there was lawlessness or crime. The Red Cross said they would do what they could but it would not be any time soon!

People were coming into the shelter at a steady rate and my firefighters were doing a great job of putting them into the best areas of the building for there needs. Those people that brought cots and baggage were put into the auditorium where they had room to stretch out many others were put into the hallways, we intentionally left most of the individual class rooms locked so that the evacuees could be better watched and controlled. We did not want them to be able to wander the class rooms at will. I also made sure that the cafeteria was locked so that we could control the food should that become necessary. I must say that this was all new territory for me as we had never drilled or practiced for this type of work, so every decision I made was by the seat of the pants.

A few hours had passed since we began our shelter detail and things were progressing smoothly, all of the evacuees were very orderly and calm. We were fortunate enough to have a gentleman from a nearby retirement community by the name of Clarence show up with a very nice portable ham radio, in short order he had a communication link set up. This link became vital when we lost the phone system but at the time he was setting it up I did not realize how important he would be to us. He put his radio in “My office” so that he could stay in close contact with me and quickly relay any message that I might need him too. He soon had established solid links to the outside world with other ham radio operators so that despite the fact that we would loose the phones we still had phone communication available to us.

As the storm became worse the shelter really began to fill up, we would end up with over 2500 people by the time it was all said and done. And to control these 2500 people I had a mere 25 volunteer fireman. Those troops of mine rose to the occasion spectacularly, they worked on through the day and into the night patrolling the halls and keeping order. Most of our evacuees were very orderly but we did have a few rowdies that we dealt with early on by telling them that if they couldn’t control themselves we would eject them from the shelter or have them arrested. This system of patrolling the halls worked well for the first 24 hours that we were in the shelter but many of the people became restless after hunger and lack of sleep set in.

When ever possible I was rotating some of my firemen back to our fire station so that they could get a few hours sleep and some food. The small amount of food and supplies at our station was not nearly enough for everyone in the shelter. We realized early on that we would need to feed the 2500 evacuees in our shelter. As luck would have it one of the evacuees in the shelter was the school “lunch room lady”. When I asked her about feeding all of the people she initially refused stating that she was responsible for the food and would get in trouble if it all disappeared. The walk in coolers that contained all of the food were locked with large padlocks. So were most of cupboards that contained the canned goods. I instructed my Assistant chief who was standing beside me to “OPEN THE COOLER JOHNNY” he pulled out his 36” steel multi head fireman’s crow bar and ripped the first lock right off the walk in cooler with it. Now the eyes of this poor “lunch room lady” got real big and I said to her that “I can open the rest of them in the same way or you can open them and save some damage. She quickly saw things my way and to her credit she decided that she would make the meals. We found some volunteer help from some evacuee’s to assist her in the kitchen and they indeed made food for all of our people in the shelter. But the amount of food on hand was not going to feed 2500 people very many meals. This school only served about 1000 students or less.

Although we had some food I could see that is was not enough to last for very long. Again I turned to my SOP to see who was responsible for food. The SOP book said I was to get food from the National Guard in the event of any long term shelter stay. My first phone call got me a corporal who told me there was nothing he could do for me. I requested his superior officer and after a few minutes on hold was passed on to a Sergeant who also told me that there was nothing he could do. Not happy with this I asked for his superior and was passed on to a Lieutenant. He also told me there was nothing he could do and further that he was the highest officer in the place at the time. I very calmly spoke into the phone. I asked his name and then told him again who I was and what my needs were and then proceeded to tell him in no uncertain terms that when all was said and done he was going to be the one who smelled like sh*t if all these people went hungry. After a few tense moments he agreed to send our shelter some supplies.

By now the storm was raging and we had lost power in the shelter. I had been informed by fire dispatch that we would be in the shelter for at least another 24 hours. We knew that our food situation could get bad. Using our contacts in the community I called the owners of some local restaurants. The local McDonalds and Burger King offered food from their coolers if we could pick it up. As one owner said it is going to go bad if we don’t get it out so better to give it up for a good use. I sent a couple of my firefighters in our utility van to go pick up the food, which they did. And a few hours later to my amazement two large army trucks loaded with food and supplies arrived at the schools service entrance. The National Guard Lieutenant had come through for me and had sent two truck loads of supplies including food, water and feminine napkins. Our evacuee’s were now well fed and I think that helped keep them all in good spirits.

Things were not perfect but the shelter was calm and under control our firefighters were patrolling the halls and keeping order. Despite this I still remember sitting at the principles desk thinking that I really needed more help. Myself, and some of my fireman had been up for over 24 hours and it was starting to show. We had a few things going for us it was still daylight outside so we had enough light in the school to still operate the shelter safely despite being without power. With our fire station only a few blocks away and built to with stand a hurricane, I had a safe house for my personal to get some sleep and mental rest. As good a job as my people were doing, I still thought that we needed more direction and command help from our superiors. I had been in contact with our county fire dispatch center throughout the night as needed and had monitored the fire channel every moment but still felt very much alone and on my own. It was about then that my distract chief showed up in “my office”. I was pretty damn happy to see him as I had many questions that needed to be asked. The district chief toured my shelter briefly and then said something to the effect of it looks like you have things under control with that the chief saluted and walked out the door. My mouth must have dropped open when I realized he was leaving me alone in command again. I later found out that compared to the other shelters in the area ours was one of the best run shelters in our county.

As another night in the shelter approached the weather broke just a bit which allowed people to get out of the shelter and stretch their legs. I had the attitude, that despite a mandatory evacuation, these people were free to come and go as they pleased. And further that being in the shelter or evacuating to some where else was a personal decision each person had to make. We had some evacuees that stayed in their cars out in the parking lot and some who camped in the park across the street. A few came in looked around and left, some of them came in with nothing and some brought all the essentials including radios, chairs, food and sleeping gear. In our shelter we had a good mix of population as the low areas evacuated went from upper to lower class. The parking lot was full of cars for most of the time we were in the shelter.

The daylight hours of the next day were uneventful as I recall and I even got away to the fire station for a little break. As it got darker and the storm got worse as Elena had wobbled around in the Gulf of Mexico. She actually turned around out in the gulf. With the winds blowing and the rain coming down side ways the old brick building held up well we had no water intrusion into the building and the power was actually back on for the most part. I was tired and knew that my firefighters were getting tired but we had no reserves to call. Again we used some local contacts and got a hold of a guy that said he would get us some help from a local CAP group. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth I asked him to do what he could.

We also had some help from a local State Trooper who lived in our fire distract. He was checking in on us at regular intervals, and it was a good thing too because we began to get reports of cars in the parking lot being broken into. The state trooper appeared in my office and told me that if I could get him some help he would clean up the parking lot problem. I gave him three of my biggest guys and they soon ran off the locals who were taking advantage of the bad weather. I really did not have the troops to spare for parking lot duty so was in a position of only able to do spot checks after the trooper left.

My assistant chief was out with the 4 wheeled drive brush truck assisting with an evacuation emergency call of some people stuck in a flood zone. I was in the office monitoring the radio, Clarence was relaying messages for people in our shelter and was a great help to me in controlling the situation. It was in one of the rare moments of quiet that a young man in an army BDU came into the office saluted me and stated his name and rank. Then he tells me he has a detail of men from CAP (Civil air patrol) with him to assist us at our shelter. Now, this kid couldn’t have been 16 years old and some of his troops looked much younger than that. We needed help so I thought for a moment and then asked him if he would patrol the parking lot and surrounding areas to watch for trouble makers. I briefed him on what I expected and told them to beat a hasty retreat from any trouble. He gave me a snappy salute and went off on the mission.

We got busy again as the weather worsened the rain came down sideways again while the power went on and off several times through the night. Despite the fact the school had battery powered emergency lights the evacuees were much more restless when the lights were out. We mingled with the people trying to calm them and tend to there needs. Some needed help and many did not. I was amazed at how prepared some were. There were groups of people gathered around those that had portable televisions and this helped very much in keeping people calm because they were being informed. We also used the school intercom to inform every one with updates of our weather situation. All of the fireman under me were working tirelessly keeping up with the shelter needs. I must say I was humbled at how well these volunteers of mine rose to the occasion.

It was well after 2 A.M that night when I felt things were quiet enough that I could go into the office for some rest. When I sat down at the desk I saw my notes from the conversation with the CAP kid. I just then realized that they were still patrolling the parking lot and the rain was coming down in sheets and the wind howling. I put on my bunker coat and went out to find them. What I saw was amazing, those “kids” were marching up and down the rows of cars calling cadence. When I got to the group of these fine young men I suggested that they should go in and get some rest and chow. The young officer in charge did not want to leave the post saying that they had a job to do. I politely ordered the young officer to take a break a three A.M. He saluted smiled and returned to marching his troops up and down the lot first up one row then down another. Not a single car was reported broken into while the CAP was out there.

The next day dawned clear and we were told that the emergency was over and everyone could return to their homes. I did hear some grumbling about evacuating for no reason and what a waste of a weekend but no one complained about anything my fireman had done. Just the opposite in fact I had a lot of people shake my hand as they left and tell me what a fine job my men and women had done. I was very proud at that moment. Because, I too knew what my troops had done. Most of them had been more than 48 hours with little or no sleep and had risen to the occasion with strength and distinction. We said our good byes and packed up our gear. I sent every one home for a much need rest, it was really very actually anti climatic since the damage in our area was minimal.

I later recommended the CAP boys for a commendation as well as Clarence the radio operator and thanked each of my people in person. I later found out that our shelter was indeed considered the most well run shelter in the entire area and I was presented a commendation by the county commission for my role in the success of the evacuation. I do not know that I deserved it but I was very proud to receive it. We learned a lot from that experience and I was debriefed by several command types that wanted to know how we did it. We were just lucky enough to have the right people at the right time and place. I had 25 of the best volunteers in the county at the time we drilled once a week and also had a good group of officers that we not afraid to make a tough decision and see it through. This was the largest peace time evacuation in the United States at that time. That old volunteer station of mine has since been taken over by the county and is presently staffed with only three career men at a time. I can not imagine that they would have the ability to control the situation that my volunteer fireman had to. I felt overwhelmed with a staff of 30 or so people if you include my ham radio operator the janitor and the lunch room staff.

Steve Sciuga written in 2005 from memory of hurricane Elena 1985