Camden County Says Cold Weather Shelter Was A Lifesaver During Power Failures

It was there if needed, but only a handful of people sought refuge at a 24 hour shelter that was quickly set up at the Community Christian Church in Camdenton when last weeks dangerous cold arrived.

Camden County EMA Director Sam Henley says it was still worth it and the volunteers were happy to help…and it was a template for setting up such shelters in the future if needed…

“Many of the churches in the area saw what we were doing with Community Christian, and they said “how hard would it be for us to stand one up in our community, so that people don’t have to travel to one central location?””

Henley says the folks that showed up to the shelter had lost water after pipes burst at the usual housing.

“We actually did not see very many. I think we only had two at the very highest. But the biggest part of why we do this and why we attempt to set up something like an emergency shelter is so that in the case that we had 9000 people out of electricity, we had the shelter available if they needed to relocate. We know that there was a really low amount of people this time time, and mostly it was because it was a sudden, quick way of putting together a shelter. It did run for three and a half days, and it gave us the ability to put protocols into place that we could use in the future. If we do end up with, once again, temperatures that could be deadly.”

Henley says it has also led to other churches and organizations reaching out for information on how they too could offer such help should it ever be needed.