Phyllis and Dan Marty of Galesburg spent two
weeks in Texas and Louisiana volunteering with
the American Red Cross to help Hurricane
Katrina victims.

Martys lend a hand, and an ear

Couple helps with shelter in Shreveport

Sunday, September 25, 2005

By CHRIS ETHERIDGE

The Register-Mail

They had wanted to help the Red Cross after Hurricane Charlie hit Florida in 2004, but were told they needed to be trained. They took the 40 hours of training and this hurricane season their offer to help was accepted.

"We called Red Cross the Monday after it happened and (Western Illinois Director) Lynne Tyler said they really needed trained people down there," Dan said. "So we went."

The rural Knox County residents returned last week from Shreveport, La., where they were a part of a five-member Red Cross team that set up and ran a shelter for evacuees from New Orleans.

The Martys gave their employers two days' notice that they were leaving, and both said their bosses were supportive. They left Sept. 2 for Houston and thought they might be assigned to the Astrodome, but after waiting in the Houston headquarters in a hotel at the airport for a couple of hours they were reassigned to the Red Cross group in Baton Rouge.

"We were told to relax and wait, and then after a while they told us they wanted us in Baton Rouge," Dan said.

KENT KRIEGSHAUSER/The Register-Mail Dan Marty displays the credentials he used to get around during his two week volunteer duty with the American Red Cross helping Hurricane Katrina victims.

The Red Cross rented them a car and they drove Interstate 10 to Baton Rouge. On the road they passed trucks carrying generators and supplies around the region and army vehicles driving in both directions.

Because Phyllis is a registered nurse, she worked with the team unloading evacuees from the buses and assessing their medical needs. Dan, the director of maintenance at Knox College, was assigned to help unload clothes and bedding.

They were then transferred farther north to a new shelter the Red Cross was opening in Shreveport, a city that already had five shelters and was opening a 1,200-bed shelter in the CenturyTel Center, a convention hall like the Peoria Civic Center.

They worked 14-hour days for most of the time there, taking many of the last people removed from New Orleans, people who had spent more than a week in the water. Phyllis said they saw a lot of people with rashes and foot problems because they had spent so much time in the water.

They also served as companions to the evacuees.

While many needed questions answered, "lots of people just wanted to talk," Phyllis said. "And we would listen."

Both said if they were given the opportunity to do it again, they would.