Shelter Residents Find Refuge in Yonkers

Shelter Resident Racquel Bloomfield and Red Cross Volunteer Carl Kologie

Red Cross shelter resident Racquel Bloomfield, holding back tears, said, “Thank God for the Red Cross, without them we wouldn’t know what to do.”

The Yonkers, N.Y., native, her three children, Airiel, 17, Kenneth, 12, and Gabrielle, 5, along with her mother, Lorna Bailey, were driven out of their home by Superstorm Sandy.

“We were so scared, with the rain and trees hitting the windows. And by 8 o’clock that evening a fire started,” apparently triggered by sparking electrical outlets.

Fire officials forced the family to evacuate and they were sent to the Police Athletic League building on North Broadway Street were a shelter had been opened and was managed by the American Red Cross.

“They have been so wonderful to us. The food has been good and every-one is very courteous.”

Red Cross workers were sent to accompany the family to neighboring Mt. Vernon to help her pick up necessary medications. But Gabrielle begged her mother, “Let’s go back to the place (shelter) where we were living.”

Bloomfield said her children pleaded, “Let’s go back, we love it there.”

She added, “This is the safest place that we can be. We feel so secure.”

This Red Cross shelter hosted lots of fun activities for the kids to lessen the pain of being away from home. Residents look to this shelter as a bright spot of blue sky.