FLOOD RELIEF CENTER BEGINS TO WIND DOWN

For more than a month the Heartland Cares Distribution Center has received, warehoused and distributed food, housewares and cleaning supplies to about 2,000 people affected by the flood.

Now the Red Cross and the other agencies that coordinated the center's work are beginning to wind down the effort.

Ron MacCubbin, chairman of disaster services for the Cape Girardeau chapter of the American Red Cross, said Monday that on Sept. 10 the center no longer will distribute food to flood victims.

Mary Burton, executive director of the local Red Cross, said she expects the center to close entirely by the end of the month.

"Things are starting to slow up now, as well it should," Burton said. "People are starting to get back into their houses and the need won't be as great for our services by the end of the month."

"We want to get the people hardest hit and help them out," said MacCubbin. "There are still needs in the community, but we're going to close down because this isn't what we do full time."

The Red Cross will continue to warehouse left-over flood-relief items and serve as a referral service for flood victims who still need help. MacCubbin said the local food bank will provide food to those in need.

When the Heartland Cares Distribution Center closes at the end of the month it will mark the end of a massive relief effort that far exceeded Burton's or MacCubbin's expectations.

"We knew it was going to be big," said Burton. "We didn't have the experience to deal with a disaster of this magnitude, so we learned as we went."

Burton said that in June the Red Cross was busy helping local residents struck by a wind storm. That effort was still under way when the river started its sustained rise.

"We weren't even through with the wind storm when this hit," she said. "We had no idea that we would need this much space, have this many volunteers, or that it would take this long.

"With the lack of experience we had, I think we did a pretty good job of meeting the community's needs."

Burton said the volunteers for the past month, 20-30 staffed the center daily deserve accolades for their tireless work; people like Marlene Osburn, who has coordinated the distribution effort. Burton said Osburn was at the center every day, usually starting two hours before the doors were opened in the morning.

"That's what the Red Cross is volunteers who contribute physically and monetarily," she said.

The distribution center was the brainchild of the Red Cross, Salvation Army, FISH, Church World Services, and the East Missouri Action Agency, which agreed to pool its efforts to create a grocery store where flood victims could get food and other needed items for free.

In the old IGA building at 80 Plaza Way, which was donated by its owner, items from throughout the nation were unloaded, sorted and stored.

The center opened July 30. Since then the distribution center has served about 2,000 people and distributed tens of thousands of dollars worth of food and supplies.

MacCubbin said that despite the imminent closure of the center, activity there was bustling last week.

"The word took a little while to get out, and I think a lot of people, out of pride, simply refused to seek help," he said. "But we've had a tremendous amount of people who were first-timers in the last week."

Gil Degenhardt of FISH said many people choose instead to "fend for themselves."

He said the center will continue to accept donations. Most needed are flat shovels used for cleaning silt-filled homes and food items such as cooking oil and canned meat and fruit.

MacCubbin said donations have dropped off in the past couple of weeks.

"I think that's just the nature of disasters," he said. "Once it becomes less and less in the news, it's less and less on the minds of people."

Burton said it's important for area residents to realize workday challenges remain for the Red Cross, aside from flood relief. The agency, for example, dealt with three single-family fires in the past week.

"The Red Cross is here all the time," she said. "People seem to forget that we need that help all through the year."