Chapter 4Derrick went down the hall to the gym where the fire department had set up shop. They were putting up cots. Since the school was the emergency shelter, they had a hundred cots stored in a large closet in the back of the gym. Beside the cots were blankets and small pillows. Some of the kids had gotten out earlier with their parents, but those parents who were left were expected to share a cot with their young child. People were being sent down in shifts to the cafeteria where the school food service was busy preparing hot lunches for those who made it to the high school. The first aid squad provided coffee urns and cans of coffee to brew. Derrick’s bread and muffins went to the cafeteria to be doled out by the lunch ladies.
Volunteers were coming in wet and miserable. Almost all o
