AtlantiCare MAB Bus Transports 20 displaced Patients – Sheltered evacuees excited to head home

BUENA — Moving day came Friday for almost 200 shore residents displaced into shelters in western Atlantic County since before Hurricane Sandy arrived.

Shelters at St. Augustine Preparatory School in Richland and Buena Regional Middle School ceased operations by 5 p.m. Friday, emergency officials said. A shelter at the Buena Regional High School closed Thursday.

The shelters had been in operation since an evacuation was ordered Oct. 27, two days before Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City.

On Friday, the evacuees were either taken either to their homes on Absecon Island or to a new shelter set up at the Atlantic City Convention Center, according to Ed Conover, deputy county emergency management coordinator.

He said most of the people at the two shelters were residents of Atlantic City or Ventnor.

“I’m ready to go home,” said Paul Ford, 75, of Atlantic City as he plugged his electric wheelchair into a charging port at the St. Augustine Prep shelter.

Ford, a resident of Community Haven Nursing Home, was told he could head home Friday morning. He waited by the door for a bus to take him there.

“I got here Saturday night, and the worst part is trying to get to sleep here,” Ford said. “Now I want to go home and take a bath.”

David Thomas, 9, of the Chelsea Heights section of Atlantic City said he was told water went into the attic of his family’s home during the storm. He said he was at the shelter with his grandparents and great-grandparents.

There were 54 people at the Prep shelter who had to be moved Friday, Conover said.

There were 141 more evacuees at the middle school shelter Friday and they began moving out to their homes at 1 p.m., according to Jim Plant, a Red Cross shelter manager who came from northern California to help.

Plank said the shelter opened Saturday night. He said the middle school took in 27 remaining evacuees from Buena Regional High School on Thursday.

Conover said emergency management inspectors were in Atlantic City on Friday morning, checking on evacuees’ homes for damage.