Erica Grindle wandered through the Operation Safe Haven warehouse Saturday in Aurora, a spacious facility packed wall-to-wall with furniture, kitchen appliances and thousands of cardboard boxes filled with clothes for Hurricane Katrina survivors.
She sifted through a large crate, looking for shoes for her three children, and said surviving the hurricane with her family in Biloxi, Miss. was easy compared with starting their new life in Colorado.
“We really lost everything,” said Grindle, 28, who is still waiting for permanent housing from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “All we had was what we brought on our backs.”
Since the Operation Safe Haven warehouse opened on Sept. 18, more than 400 families have found the means to ease the transition from dormitory life at Lowry to life in their new homes.
Pastor Dale Bonnett, Operation Safe Haven’s director, said that while the images of Katrina’s devastation continue to fade in the minds of the public, 10 to 20 families continue to show up at the warehouse each day.
“The farther we get from Katrina, the less people seem to feel the importance,” he said. “The need is still desperate for many families, maybe more now than it was just after the storm.”
Bonnett said donations have been plentiful and FEMA and the state have done more than expected, but he can’t find enough volunteers to staff the warehouse.
“We have a three- to four-day wait for items to be delivered because we desperately need strong bodies to get the furniture out,” he said. “That’s not fast enough when you are sleeping on a floor.”
Tessa Wheeler and Jennifer Collins spent the day sorting clothes and unloading trucks filled with donations as part of a business-class assignment for the University of Denver.
“This is so rewarding because you are helping someone else rather than just sitting around on the couch all day on a Saturday,” Wheeler said.
Staff writer Michael McCollum can be reached at mmccollum@denverpost.com or 303-820-1201.
