City and shelters work to provide safety for winter storm temperatures

• A local family whose boiler broke Monday night was given a warm place due to a coordinated effort by community leaders

• Several groups, including the mayor’s office, the county trustees, the fire and police department and American Red Cross came together Sunday night in preparation to help those in need during the winter storms

• Some businesses in the community such as McDonald’s and Greek’s Pizzeria donated food to the workers providing help and displaced families

One local man said he may not have lived through Monday night had it not been for the Muncie police and the American Red Cross in conjunction with the city government.

“Without them, I don’t think we would have survived the night,” Joseph Fischer, a Muncie resident, said.

Fischer, his wife, Velva, and his mother-in-law, Melissa Clark, live in an apartment on University Avenue.

The family does not own a radio or a television with access to televised programming, making information, such as weather updates, hard to get.

“We really didn’t know that the storm was coming until it got right up on us,” he said. “We didn’t have the chance to get to the store.”

Things worsened for the family. The breaker on the boiler blew and caused the temperature in their home to drop 30 degrees in four hours. At its lowest, the apartment was 38 degrees.

This drop became a life-threatening temperature. Fischer suffers from several health issues ranging from diabetes to fibromyalgia.

“I’ve had heart attacks, I’ve had strokes,” Fischer said. “I still have trouble walking. When I go downstairs, I get really shaky and I get weak, and then I just fall.”

Between poor insulation and a broken boiler, the family realized they couldn’t make it through the night and called for help.

“[The police] shoveled a path for us to get out. They were very nice,” Fischer said. “This is the first time I’ve ever had to do something like this.”

The family was taken to American Red Cross, one of several shelters for those in need.

Fire Chief Eddie Bell has transported four people to different destinations during the storm and had three or four trucks picking people up off the streets and helping them get to their destinations.

“There is a gentleman who usually walks to dialysis,” Bell said. “I’ll be picking him up tomorrow at 5:45 and making sure he gets there and that [he] gets back home at nine.”

Providing as much information as possible has been key to the smoothness of the emergency services and the lack of injuries, Mayor Dennis Tyler and Bell said.

“If you notify people, odds are they are going to listen and react the way you want them to,” Bell said.

Marilyn Kay Walker, a center township trustee who mainly deals with poverty relief in the area, also has been heavily involved in coordinating relief.

She has worked in conjunction with Christian Ministries of Delaware County, the American Red Cross, the YWCA and the Muncie Mission to provide shelter for displaced residents, including Fischer and his family.

The American Red Cross houses, feeds, helps provide medical attention and if necessary, finds people a place to stay.

Lee Ann Mengelt, American Red Cross’ service center manager, said it isn’t the snow that poses the greatest threat to displaced residents, but the temperature.

While the shelters had many beds available, most were filled as a result of their daily operations.

“In total, there is an estimated 45 to 60 beds that were made available for residents who needed a place,” Walker said. “Christian Ministries added between 12 and 14 beds before the storm for women and children. YWCA takes in women and children, but often the boys have to be under the age of five.”

Walker said these shelters are sometimes gender-specific, making it difficult for some families.

“Last night, we had a family of three that came in, and I called her and she told me she only had two beds available,” she said. “The son that they had was really 17 and needed a full bed.”

The family was able to stay together after a couch was found for the son to use.

Preventative measures helped coordinate the different emergency organizations, Tyler said.

“[Walker, Bell and I] wanted to be prepared,” he said. “If we need it, it’s there. If we don’t need it, so what? It’ll be there the next time. Practice helps you to not make mistakes when that emergency does hit you.”

The leaders kept in contact with texting, even late into the night.

“Even through all of this [Tyler] and I will text one another, we’ll call and ask, ‘Is everything okay?’” Walker said. “That’s the life of a public servant. You do it because you believe in it. Helping one another, helping people, and it’s a good feeling.”

Community businesses pitched in to assist emergency services by feeding plow workers, volunteers, and displaced residents.

McDonald’s provided 50 hamburgers and 100 gallons of orange drink to relief shelters.

“[McDonald’s] took the time for these McDoubles,” Walker said. “They fixed a variety. It wasn’t, ‘Hey, here’s a McDouble’ — they gave them an option of what they could have. And then they gave a big container that we could make 100 gallons of orange drink, if need be.”

Greek’s Pizzeria also contacted Tyler to donate 18 pizzas to the crew at the sanitary district, which was helping clear the roads Monday night.

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