Sat, Jul 04 2009
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Published March 05, 2008 07:02 pm - Isaiah Salters warmed his hands over an oil lamp’s flame while his father, the Rev. John Salters, lined up a pool shot by the light of a window at G.O. Ministries Wednesday afternoon. Residents cope with help from shelters, each other By CARL E. FEATHER - Lifestyle Editor - cfeather@starbeacon.com Star Beacon Isaiah Salters warmed his hands over an oil lamp’s flame while his father, the Rev. John Salters, lined up a pool shot by the light of a window at G.O. Ministries Wednesday afternoon.
A student at Lakeside High, Isaiah had his plans for the day altered by the ice storm that closed schools across Ashtabula County. For his father and the Rev. Samuel Richardson, it was business as usual: an afternoon pool game in the chilly Station Avenue building. “You can either play pool or curl up in the bed and go to sleep,” said Maverick Naylor, who manages the ministries’ soup kitchen. The only heat in the building came from the gas stove in the kitchen. Naylor says the ministry once owned some kerosene heaters, but like the electrical generators that powered the place prior to tapping into the grid, the heaters had been stolen. With the temperature in the building hovering around 50 degrees, both Salters and Naylor wished they had a couple of them. At least Salters had negotiated the use of a generator to provide lights for the dinner crowd. Naylor sipped vintage coffee left over from the prior day, and reheated on the stove, as he pondered what he’d cook for the guests. “I’m working on it,” he said. “It might not be what everybody wants, but it will be food, and it will be hot.” G.O. was one of several places in Ashtabula where residents could seek shelter Wednesday. The chambers of Ashtabula City Council and the cafeteria of Ashtabula County Medical Center were two others. The Red Cross set up the warming shelter in council chambers shortly after noon, said Red Cross volunteers Shelley Meister and Maria Abbott. Renee Henry and Kristy Bernardo learned about the shelter from listening to the radio, packed up Henry’s four children and headed for the Municipal Building on Main Avenue. “We have no electricity, no heat. We can’t even cook,” said Henry, who lives on West 47th Street. “It got really cold in there.” “We all decided to cuddle up in one bed, two adults and four kids,” said Bernardo when asked how they dealt with the cold. Thanks to a city employee who brought in a small television, Henry’s children — Xander, 1; Jerry IV, 3; Drake, 5; and Steven, 11 — had entertainment. The Red Cross offered snacks and water, but the volunteers didn’t know whether more substantial food options or overnight shelter would be offered. The Red Cross office on Center Street was without power, and the relief efforts were being coordinated by cell phone. “It’s a place to be warm right now,” said Henry. “That’s all that matters to us.” Tina Stasiewski, ACMC director of business development, said the decision was made shortly before noon to offer the cafeteria as a shelter. Stasiewski says ACMC’s primary concern was for the well-being of senior citizens 65 and older because they are more susceptible to the cold. ACMC did not suffer the power outage that affected many homes and businesses in the area, and if the power from the grid had been lost, the hospital’s auxiliary generators would have kicked in. Florence Cedoz went to the cafeteria upon the recommendation of her landlord, Dale Corlew, who manages the Greenway Senior Housing on Nathan Avenue. Cedoz uses an oxygen machine disabled by the outage. With only a couple of small tanks of oxygen on hand, she and her daughter, Miracle, and grandson, Ricky, 8 months, took shelter in the hospital cafeteria. Miracle says it got so cold in their apartment she had to dress Ricky in his snowsuit to keep him warm. 
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