NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Two months after Hurricane Florence struck the Carolinas, the region’s last Red Cross shelter will close Friday, leaving nearly 40 residents to make new plans.
Many originally shelter at the New Hanover County emergency shelter at Hoggard High School, before the Red Cross took over in early October. The Red Cross transferred about 140 people who were still displaced from their homes to Leland and – after an apparent failure to communicate with Brunswick County – moved them back across the river to two shelters. Those shelters later consolidated to Christ the King Church, located off of North College Road just north of Wilmington.
A month later, the shelter has served its last lunch – sloppy Joes – ahead of its closure on Friday, Nov. 9. The date is posted prominently on signs on the entrance to the shelter.
According to Robert Griffin, direct services support manager for the Red Cross, said there was no truth to rumors that the Red Cross would be building a “tent city” after the shelter closed. Griffin said everyone at the shelter has “made a plan,” ahead of the closing.
“Between FEMA, HUD [Housing and Urban Development], DSS [Department of Social Services], and all the state agencies, everyone here has a plan,” Griffin said. “Everyone knows what they’re doing next.”
Shelter manager Cindy Rutledge said the shelter had 39 people as of Wednesday night. Rutledge, who returned to her native Wilmington to volunteer, said that everyone had been offered a plan of action.
“Everyone’s been offered a plan. They didn’t all take them, they didn’t all want them, but everyone’s been offered a plan,” Rutledge said.
