JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
Children are finding fun ways to pass the time at the old campus of the New Horizon Church International on Belvedere Drive in Jackson. They're playing ball, watching movies, and playing with toys. They came with their families from cities and towns in the path of Isaac.
John Miles is there with 11 family members, most of them children. His cousin Braydon is only three weeks old.
"I ain't get much sleep myself, you know. Kinda been tired. Trying to ride this thing out in Mississippi. It's been a good thing, staying out of the hurricane's eye," he says.
This is nothing new for Miles, who rode out Hurricane Katrina in a Hattiesburg shelter for two weeks. He says he's comfortable at the New Horizon shelter, which has a capacity for hundreds of cots. It has all of the resources the Red Cross has to offer, including healthy snacks and meals.
"We did hear there were some evacuees in hotels, but not having food, so that kinda stuff is happening. We're telling people if you need the shelter, come," says Mississippi Red Cross Assistant Stacia Hunter. "We have an entertainment center where they can watch movies. We don't have cable. that's kinda good because they're keeping their minds off what could possibly happen. It's more of a relaxed, peaceful setting. We have books, magazines, coloring books, fresh coffee."
The New Horizon shelter is expecting more families, and it's the same story at the Mississippi Coliseum on the Fairgrounds, the main Red Cross shelter in the Jackson area. Shelter volunteers want to remind evacuees to bring their pets, and house them at the animal shelter, which is also on the Fairgrounds.
"We can take all kinds of animals, birds, snakes, rodents, cats, dogs, we can take care of them," says shelter assistant Gail Buesnel. "If the resident is in the shelter, they can come out, exercise their own animal. They can come out after the storm, comfort their own animal. It really is the best of both worlds," she says.
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