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PANAMA CITY – Chris Fillyaw just wants to go out.
Since Tuesday, the Panama City man, his brother and mother are at the Northside Elementary School, created by the American Red Cross in an effort to shelter the victims of Hurricane Michael.
He did not really appreciate his stay so far.
"I was sleeping outside on Tuesday because it was very hot, but yesterday they told me I could not sleep outside," Fillyaw said in front of the school on Saturday morning. "People are sweating all night in the hallways … you can see the sweat drops on people."
Fillyaw is one of hundreds of people living in the shelter since the hurricane devastated Bay County, damaging or destroying many homes in its path. Some residents say that the shelter has been poorly staffed up to now, with basic necessities like adequate food, water, toilets in good condition, beds and medications arriving slowly or not at all.
"These are unhealthy conditions … unhealthy living conditions, that's what bothers me the most," said Cynthia Larson, a certified nurse practitioner, who stayed at the shelter all week because the hurricane seriously damaged his home near Rutherford High School. "It's a so-called certified shelter … but it's not."
Larson said that since the opening of the shelter, many toilets are clogged, overflowing with uncleaned human waste.
"Children run barefoot … someone will catch E. coli (an intestinal bacteria)," Larson said.
Larson, who is also suffering from terminal cancer, said that Red Cross employees told her she was the only person in the shelter with a medical license.
"There is no defibrillator here … I am the only person I know who can perform CPR," said Larson. "There is no special food for diabetics or heart patients … they asked me the other day if I could write prescriptions for some of these patients."
Attempts on Saturday to reach Red Cross officials were unsuccessful. A Red Cross employee at the shelter said she was not allowed to speak to the media. She also stated that the media were not allowed to walk in the hallways of the shelter, but could talk to people sitting outside.
Saturday morning, in the school lobby, a pungent smell of human waste was in the air. One resident of an older shelter could be heard complaining to a Red Cross employee about the uncleanliness of the bathrooms. Rows of people on cots lining both sides of the building's corridors were also visible.
An employee of the Red Cross Visitor Center, who refused to give her name because she was not allowed to speak to the media, said that the school had 300 people but that it had hosted up to 600 survivors of the hurricane. She said that the Red Cross had three accommodation centers in Panama and 27 in all areas affected by hurricanes, with a capacity of 6,000 people.
The shelter employee said that there was no timetable for the duration of shelter opening.
"The way they treated us, I will not continue to donate," Fillyaw said of the Red Cross.
Fillyaw said that the portable toilets had only recently arrived at the shelter. And, he said, everyone had to sleep on the floor for the first two or three nights at the shelter.
The food and water were improved, he said, but they were still not great.
Fillyaw said Friday the Red Cross had grilled hamburgers and hot dogs at the military and volunteer shelter. The residents of the foster homes, however, were not allowed to eat grills and were given tortillas with a little cheese, he said.
"It was not even a good cheese, it was a block cheese that did not even melt," Fillyaw said with a laugh. "At least they could have grilled all that food further from us, so we did not have to smell it."
Susan Schneider, living at the shelter with her husband, Henry, and five children, said the food was below normal.
"My kids just ate the tortillas with the cheese in the center," Schneider said. "We do not treat, not too good at all."
Schneider said the family has been at the shelter since Tuesday. They lived at the Aqua View Motel in Panama City Beach since last month, but they can not come back because Henry Schneider has no income. Schneider said he was a mechanic at a local carport.
"I was unable to contact anyone at work," he said. "I do not know when I can go back to work."
The family had to sleep on the first nights, but have since received cots.
"Things are improving," said Schneider. "They are intensifying things now."
Fillyaw said he would rather take his family to his grandmother's home in Mississippi, but he does not have a vehicle to get there. Fillyaw said he had been trying to find a way to contact the Federal Emergency Management Agency to get some sort of voucher for transportation.
"We have no information on what FEMA is doing," he said. "I do not need money, I just need a way out of here."
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