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Robins Air Force Base lends helping hand to Katrina evacuees

  • Published
  • By Lanorris Askew
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affaris
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFMCNS) --  While hundreds of Robins Air Force Base Airmen headed into the Gulf Coast region devastated by Hurricane Katrina, some of the personnel who remained reached out to those who were seeking a place of refuge in Middle Georgia.

Christine Parker, Robins Family Support Center director, said they are working to help Air Force Personnel Center, Randolph AFB, Texas, account for displaced military members.

"The biggest role the base is playing is taking care of evacuees who are coming into the Middle Georgia area," she said. "We're trying to focus our efforts on military families or Department of Defense civilian families who are coming here looking for a safe haven from the storms that hit the Gulf area."

Mrs. Parker said the center's outstretched hands are for any service member who is in need and they are aiding them in every way they can, including helping to get needed prescriptions filled and looking into possible schooling for students who may be displaced for long periods.

"We're helping them take care of financial needs, we're helping them with emotional needs if they have them, but for the most part people are just looking for lodging and a safe place to stay."

Mrs. Parker said many people are finding that it could be weeks or even months before they are allowed to return to their homes.

"We've made contact with 30 families, about half of whom are being lodged on base," she said. "Those are simply the people who have checked in with us and needed either information or support of some kind. We suspect that there are another 50-to-100 people in our Middle Georgia community."

The Family Support Center director said the center has asked that every military evacuee receiving help at Robins call the center or stop by.

"This is just to let us know who they are, where they came from and where they are staying locally," she said. "That way I can let Air Force Personnel Center know who we have here because we're trying to ensure that everyone is accounted for."

More than a dozen people are currently lodged in base billeting at the Pine Oaks Lodge.