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Crime & Safety

Clark Rec Center Becomes Red Cross Shelter

As families hunker down to ride out Hurricane Irene at home, volunteers spend the night caring for those in need.

As Hurricane Irene’s first rain bands arrived in Clark, Clark CERT (Community Emergency Response Training) teams and American Red Cross volunteers transformed the Clark Recreation Center into the only Red Cross Shelter in Union County. Emergency Management Coordinator and head of Clark FEMA, Jerry Fewkes, met with representatives from Clark Police, Fire, Emergency Squad, Emergency Management, Public Works and Mayor and Council this week to set up the shelter and command center and make preparations to help protect vulnerable residents from the storm.

Two volunteers from the American Red Cross–Ruth Jackson from the Princeton-area Red Cross and Victor Prasad from the Somerset-area branch–will spend the night manning the center, along with Jerry Fewkes, Lily Chin-Aronds and a handful of other CERT volunteers.

The shelter will provide evacuated residents with cots and blankets provided by the Red Cross. Coffee, tea, cookies and fruit, as well as paper products, hand sanitizers and baby wipes will also be provided. In addition, the Clark CERT trailer, which CERT recently applied for and received from the state, is filled with supplies and several generators to further serve the needs of our citizens.

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The shelter is prepared to comfortably serve at least 100 evacuated residents and many more if conditions become severe. Other towns are setting up their own emergency shelters locally, but because this shelter is the only Red Cross location in Union County, volunteers expect there may be evacuees arriving from other towns in addition to Clark.

Prior to the mandatory 8 p.m. curfew in Clark, the command center and shelter were vacant except for the volunteers. When asked how many people they expect to see tonight, the volunteers said it could range from almost no one to a full house. Whichever the case, they are prepared.

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