The Flomaton High School Student Council along with businesses and individuals tapped the Flomaton Fire Department and Med 16 to deliver a trailer of supplies to a fire department and a church in Hurricane Michael damaged Apalachicola on Monday, Oct. 22, leaving at 8:20 a.m., returning at 8:30 p.m. that same day.
Loaded in the trailer were items such as water, tarps, dog food, gloves, canned goods, toothpaste, deodorant, carpet cleaner, diapers, wipes, paper towels, toilet paper, mops, brooms, charcoal, lighter fluid, gasoline, toothbrushes, towels, washcloths, soap, dishwashing liquid, batteries, 250 coloring books and more.
“Danielle Wallace, an English teacher and FHS Student Council sponsor contacted me to ask if I knew if anyone was sending something down south because they wanted to send supplies to help,” said Flomaton Fire Chief Steve Stanton. “We agreed to supply the trailer and help them collect supplies to fill it.”
MedStar also agreed to send an ambulance to assist with transporting patients to nearby facilities.
Flomaton fireman Donnie Brown was one of two firemen who drove the supplies southward. Brown said he was shocked at the amount of damage he witnessed.
“Worst destruction I've ever seen in my life,” said Brown. “It made Ivan look like a pushover. We were lucky to not be in the path of that storm. Worst destruction ever. It was cool when I got to see our ambulance down there.”
Mike Lambert, Larry White and other private individuals brought supplies for delivery to the storm-ravaged area.
As part of Red Ribbon Week, Flomaton Elementary School has a trailer the students are filling up to take to rural areas in Alabama, such as Dothan and surrounding areas in Houston County. Items collected by day of the week are on Monday, bottled water with the slogan, “Drown out drugs”; on Tuesday, pop-top canned foods with the slogan, “FES cans drugs”; on Wednesday, liquid or bar soap, with the slogan, “Wash out drugs”; on Thursday, dog food and catfood, with the slogan, “Anything is pawsible without drugs”; and Friday, decks of cards, markers, coloring books, Nerf balls, crosswords and toys that require no electricity, with the slogan, “FES doesn't play with drugs”.
“There are rural areas above Dothan hit really hard and may not have power yet,” said FES Guidance Counselor Sharmon O'Bannon. “My husband and I are leaving this Saturday morning to see if we can find people who can't get to the distribution points who need some things. People have brought lots of personal things like deodorant, baby stuff, rice mix, baby food, pop tops of Ravioli, shampoo and soap. We will be traveling in the wire grass area, to towns like Gordon and other rural towns.”
