Ike's Indiana Aftermath, four

It's now Wednesday. I get to the Crawford County office, hoping to find enough food safety brochures in my file cabinet. Some, but definitely, not enough. Fortunately, my boss had hooked up a small generator and I could make copies. While the machine was working away, a co-worker brought me a memo. It said that the EMA was having a meeting at 10am. We decided that we will attend. First, the meeting was not where they said it would be. We found the meeting anyway, arriving 5 minutes late. As we walked in, the first thing said to us was, "you cannot be here". My co-worker stated that we were with "agencies". We were told again, that we could not be there. After the third time, I said, "we were the ones that unloaded your precious water and you are going to tell us to leave?". Oops, my temper again.
At this point, we were asked to sit down. Smart move on their part. At this meeting, we found out where citizens could get a hot meal, that we now had ice at the fairgrounds for food storage, the Red Cross had served 900 meals at the Marengo Wesleyan Church and a bunch more logistical stuff.
Time to ask some questions...how were they handling seniors in distress? How were they getting oxygen and meds to people in need? How were citizens being notified as to where the services were? Why was there not a central shelter or shelters for the people in need? Why don't citizens know where to go in advance? Has anyone gone door to door, checking on people, other than the three of us (officially checking)? Answers, I wanted answers!
Well , here are the answers we got (for, what they are worth). No one was handling any individual. They could call if they were in distress (no phones, remember!). Oxygen supplies were the medical companies responsibility (how were they going to know, no phones). Our EMA, was working with the school district. Families with school aged children would get an automated message, as to where to locate services (again, many do not have service. And, what about anyone without children in school, 39.7% of our population). Shelter locations were on a need to know basis (what?). Basically, The Red Cross decided that a shelter was not needed. "People still had a roof over their heads" (this was so wrong minded, that I was confused). Finally, yes, people were going door to door...the 3 of you!
Other answers were, that the Food Stamp people were putting some money back on recipients EBT cards, to make up for spoiled food. The county would shut down feeding stations by Friday evening (as one Fire Chief stated, "otherwise people will never do anything on their own"), after all, power would be back to most homes in Crawford County by then. That the Red Cross had a trailer load of "heater meals", these would be placed at the Fire Departments for week end use, by families still without power. And so, on.
We asked a few more questions. What about families that lost their food, are not on assistance and do not qualify for our food pantries? Could we get some "heater meals", for senior shut ins? (yes, but it took another day and a half to get them), etc. Time to go to work, in more ways than one!