What a surprise we to had on Dec 5 of 2002 in High Point. When an Ice Storm covered most of North Carolina. A majority of the city and the surrounding area lost electric service due to ice and trees on power lines. We opened three shelters one each in High Point, Thomasville, and Jamestown. The shelters were open for a week housing 191 people between the three shelters. Since we are a small chapter the hard part was finding volunteers that could work a 12 hr. shift, but everybody came through and we made it by the time the last person left the shelters.The chapter has backup generator so that was our headquarters, which was a lot warmer than our homes which were like ice boxes. I was doing logistics by driving the chapter van to the different shelters supplying them with food and supplies. The strange part was driving at night in a city you had lived in for over thirty years and had no any idea where you were, because it was totally dark with most of the street and traffic lights were out.
We had gotten a c
all from the EOC at 1:30am. that an elderly lady was at her house with no power, but had a kerosene stove for warmth. She had called because her flashlight had died and she needed batteries. Could we bring her some because her dogs were there and she was not leaving them. So I went to her house with a couple sets of D cells, but she had a 6v. lantern. I gave her my flashlight and the batteries with the promise that I would bring back her flashlight with the proper batteries the next day.
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