Sometime around 1-1:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, an electrical short that led to a fire sent the residents of Kinston Towers packing, right over to the Fairfield Recreation Center.
“I looked outside and I said, ‘Man, that’s an awful lot of vehicles out there,’ ” said tenant Dallas Graham, who remained at the gym on Greenbrier Road eight hours later.
“I smelled a little smoke, and I thought I better get down there, too,” Graham said.
While at the rec center, Graham said he’s simply adjusting to the change of circumstances.
“It’s not been bad or anything. It’s just it throws you out of your routine,” Graham said, laughing. “Everything’s been nice.”
Of the 98 who arrived in the early hours of the morning, he was one of the roughly 50 residents left after 9 a.m.
“A lot of families have come and got their family members and taken them back to their homes,” said David Garrison, disaster services regional director for the American Red Cross. “So, the total number has been dwindling down steadily throughout the morning.”
Another Kinston Towers resident, Ruby McAllister, bided the time with her husband. She said she didn’t have children or family to stay with, or money for a hotel.
“It hasn’t been good. I know something could happen, and you know, I’m dealing with it,” McAllister said.
What she most wanted, she said, was a place to shower and a place to sleep. Red Cross workers — who began managing the shelter at 3 a.m. — laid out several cots on the gym floor, but the room was bright and loud Wednesday morning, and not conducive to the sort of rest for which McAllister was looking.
“I can manage,” she said.
Breakfast had been laid out — a few long tables with Bojangles’ biscuits, chips, crackers, fruit, beverages and other refreshments. King’s Restaurant provided the lunch.
Since Kinston Towers is a Kinston Housing Authority property, KHA headed up placing tenants who couldn’t find housing for the three to 10 days estimated needed to repair the building. Kinston Mayor B.J. Murphy tweeted shortly before 3 p.m. that KHA was moving residents into hotels for the time being.
“We’ll be here as long as they need us to be here,” Garrison said. “From hearing things from other people, they’re going to try to have everybody placed as much as they can today. So, we can be prepared to stay as long as we need to, but they’re working on that as we speak.”
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.