Area Baptist camps still ready, waiting to help hurricane victims

Four Southeast Missouri camps affiliated with the Missouri Baptist Convention were prepared to receive evacuees from hurricane-devastated New Orleans. Supplies were donated and preparations were made to house the victims at these camps. But only two of the four prepared Baptist camps were needed.

Approximately 170 of the evacuees were housed at Camp McClanahan near Kennett and 20 retreated to the Charleston Baptist Association Camp in Benton.

Two other area Baptist camps, Peaceful Valley Baptist Campground in Perryville and South Missouri Baptist Assembly Campground in Van Buren, were told to prepare for the possible arrival of more evacuees coming in from St. Louis, said John Rhodes, coordinator of the Southeast Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief Team.

Rhodes said he received a call Sept. 2 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Missouri's State Emergency Management Agency asking how many hurricane victims the Baptist camps could house.

"I let them know we had 18 camps across the state that could be available for 2,000 evacuees if they were needed," Rhodes said. "Everyone was told to be prepared for them but there was no confirmation that they were actually coming."

Peaceful Valley Baptist Campground manager Don Operle made arrangements for what he expected was going to be 100 evacuees arriving at the camp.

"We had the health department come out to inspect the camp," Operle said. "We had all sorts of people come out here to volunteer and get it ready."

Operle said that the camp was already closed for summer and that he had just recently drained the swimming pool.

"When I found out that these people might be coming, I filled that pool back up because I knew that these kids would want to get in clean water," he said.

Sharon Ritter is a volunteer cook at the camp.

"We made sure the kitchen was all cleaned up," she said. "A lot of items for the evacuees were brought in."

About a week after the hurricane hit, Operle said he was expecting the hurricane victims to arrive at Peaceful Valley Baptist Camp. But they never showed up.

"The information I was receiving just kept changing," Operle said. "Finally, we received information that they never showed up in St. Louis."

Operle said while he was more than happy to open his camp up to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, he had put his life on hold for an entire week getting the camp ready.

"I was looking forward to helping these people who had lost everything," he said. "But I had to cancel a bow hunt which I expected people from all over the country to attend."

He also cancelled several scheduled family reunions at the camp during the week he was preparing for hurricane victims.

An 18-wheel truck still sits on the property of Peaceful Valley Baptist Camp, full of supplies that were donated for the victims.

"It just came down to the victims never making it to St. Louis," Operle said. "But we're going to get those supplies we have to the victims somehow."

Rhodes said that the Baptist campgrounds did a wonderful job preparing for the victims but some may have overreacted to the situation at hand.

"I know everyone wanted to help but there were some folks being a little impatient and kept asking 'when are they going to get here?'" he said. "Don Operle did a wonderful job getting his camp ready, though."

The basement of the Cape Girardeau Baptist Association is still full of donated items.

Rhodes said that the items will be sent down south when they're needed.

Mary Burton, director of the American Red Cross of Southeast Missouri, said that her office was constantly chasing down rumors about victims arriving in the area.

"We had assessed all the resources in the area and located what we had," she said. "We made calls to find out what resources we thought we might be able to use. As we do in any disaster, we assess the available resources in preparation for a coming disaster which includes checking out our available sheltering resources."

Burton said the Red Cross, who works in conjunction with the Missouri Baptist Association, knew that it could not use traditional shelters, such as schools and churches, that have been used in the past.

"We knew that this was going to be a much longer-term sheltering operation," she said. "When I was notified of the need to shelter 169 people who were evacuated from the convention center in New Orleans, we determined that the Kennett camp was the closest camp available and in readiness to meet the needs of these people."

The Peaceful Valley Baptist Camp was put into reserve in anticipation of the arrival of other evacuees landing in St. Louis, Burton said.

Burton said that area camps might be used for victims of Hurricane Rita.

"We want to keep them as centrally located as possible and keep everybody together," she said.

jfreeze@semissourian.com