I know I know,,,and I know that our church campgrounds are located there and they have taken in many many many,,,,he's a blooming idiot----
I posted here late last night about my visit to the Pineville Wal-Mart. Based on what I observed at the checkout lines, it seems to me that there are two classes of people being sheltered in Rapides Parish. First, there were middle-class people who had could afford to leave and travel in style for what they assumed would be a 4-day unplanned vacation. They never realized they would never see their homes, jobs or schools again and weren't prepared for such a catastrophe. Eventually they got evicted from their motel rooms and they're living in the shelters and maxing out their credit cards. Second, there are later arrivals of urban poor from New Orleans who are actually better prepared than the first group because they were already enrolled in the welfare system before the tragedy struck. Put these two socioeconomic classes of people under the same roof and you KNOW it's a recipe for disaster.
Originally, the plan was to get everyone out of the smaller shelters and consolidate them in one spot; i.e., the former Wal-Mart building mentioned in the Jackson article. However, many churches have deliberately pulled out of the Red Cross network because, even though they'll lose their subsidy, they don't want to subject their current occupants to whatever powderkeg might be waiting for them at that larger shelter.
I've heard about the Pentecostal campground in Pineville, but only in the context that its capacity isn't large enough to hold all the church members who want to attend their annual gatherings, so they have difficulty finding hotel rooms during that period.
Most people don't understand that there are only two places to stay in Pineville -- a really dumpy Days Inn next door to a very upscale Sleep Inn & Suites -- and usually those inns are sold out to begin with, because they're already full of military personnel for Camp Beauregard across the street. Anytime there's any sort of troop movement, you can't get a room anywhere near Alexandria. So just imagine what sort of chaos this influx has created here!