Evacuees' holiday meal stolen

By Laura McAlister
Alexander City Outlook, AL

Hurricane Katrina evacuees at Wind Creek State Park were supposed to sit down to a Thanksgiving dinner today, but those plans had to be cancelled.

The Thanksgiving meal prepared by an Elmore County church was allegedly stolen, according to Wind Creek Superintendent Phil Easterwood.

"Someone went into the church and stole all the turkeys and all the hams," he said Tuesday. "Then they dumped the dressing on the floor and smeared the cranberry on the walls, so of course we had to call off lunch tomorrow for the evacuees."

Wind Creek Start Park is home to about 211 families from the Gulf Coast that were left homeless after Katrina devastated the area nearly three months ago. For many of them, Easterwood said the meal prepared by the church would have been the only Thanksgiving meal they would receive.

He said park officials had notified the families of the meal, but had to spend part of the day Tuesday letting them know it would be cancelled due to an alleged robbery at the church.

"This is just completely disheartening," Easterwood said. "It was all set to happen and because of thieves it caused us to cancel it."

Easterwood said several churches and other organizations have planned Christmas events for the evacuees, but today's lunch was the only thing planned to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.