Turning Schools into Shelters – It’s a Team Effort
Angelia Thompson is the cafeteria manager at Shields Middle School in Ruskin, which was one of the first schools to be opened as a shelter during Hurricane Milton. Arriving at school at 6 a.m. on Monday, Thompson wouldn’t leave the school until 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon so that she could ensure everyone was taken care of.
“We always come together,” Thompson says. “In times of need, it’s a team effort, and you just gotta go with the flow.”
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The principal of Shields Middle School says Thompson is one of the reasons the shelter runs so smoothly. “This is our fourth hurricane working together, and Angelia is incredible,” says Principal Deanna Fisher. “I’ve told her there’s no other cafeteria manager that I ever want to work with.”
Turning Schools into Hurricane Shelters
When a school is opened as a shelter during a hurricane, our staff work hard before, during and after the storm.
Before the storm, teachers must prepare their classrooms to be living spaces for evacuees. This means moving all desks, tables and chairs to the side of the room, locking up all academic files, and, in many cases, leaving toys or crayons out so evacuees will feel welcome.
During the storm, a skeleton crew of school staff will be on hand 24/7 to assist the county with all needs. This often includes administrators, custodians and student nutrition workers.
After the storm, it’s once again all hands-on deck. Teachers go back to their schools and return their rooms back to a nurturing environment, the way it was before the storm.
For those who work the shelters, the time during the storm is really the toughest. Anything can happen –as it did at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 8, the day Hurricane Milton hit the bay area.
“The power went out around 1:30 p.m., toward the end of lunch,” Thompson says. “We automatically started prepping dinner bags because the weather was getting bad.”
With no power, the staff at Shields had to feed 1,500 evacuees dinner in the middle of the storm. Thompson, her staff, her family and Principal Fisher started making more than a thousand dinner bags and placed them in large coolers. They then carried the large coolers up the stairs to the second floor and handed the food bags to the evacuees.
It was a labor of love – and the evacuees certainly appreciated it.
Principal Fisher credits Thompson with keeping the evacuees calm and happy.
“Here’s the thing: At a shelter with nearly 1500 people, if we start panicking, they’re going to start panicking,” Fisher says. “And the one thing we have to do is keep them calm and fed. And we did that.”
And that’s the story at shelters across Hillsborough County.
Sixteen schools were opened as shelters. They housed 15,000 evacuees. Roughly 60,000 meals were served over the course of the hurricane.
Thompson says she loves her job and she loves helping out, whether it’s serving students during the day, or evacuees during a storm.
“I don’t really think I go above and beyond, because this is my job, this is what I signed up to do,” she says. “Especially for a shelter, it’s a great feeling. I will always work a shelter because I like knowing I helped our community.”
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Photos provided by Hillsborough County Public Schools | Originally published in the November 2024 issue of Tampa Bay Parenting Magazine