AmeriCorps volunteer urges annual checks of county shelter supply boxes after mold damages equipment

Michael, an AmeriCorps service member who led shelter operations during the recent storm, told the Energy, Climate Resiliency and Sustainability Committee that town and county readiness gaps — especially in supply storage — degraded shelter capacity and placed heavy strain on volunteers.

"At our peak, 225 people [were] sleeping on army cots," Michael said, noting that cots at slow periods fell to roughly 75. He described the cots as "only about 18 inches off the ground" and said that for older clients the low beds made mobility and safety harder.

The most consequential operational failure, Michael said, involved the county-provided Connex shipping containers that hold shelter stockpiles. "We have 2 boxes there when I got there. One box good, one box bad. 1 box completely full of mold, so we lost about 50 bariatric cots," he told the committee. He said those containers are often stored at firehouses or public-works yards and sometimes go unopened for years, exposing supplies to rot.

Why this matters: those boxes hold the cots, blankets, wheelchairs, walkers and pet carriers that allow a school gym to function as an emergency shelter. When supplies are missing or degraded, towns must either turn people away or staff more complex logistics during a crisis.

Michael recommended simple, low-cost changes: an annual inventory and inspection, visible dated tags on containers, and, where feasible, moving stock to climate-controlled storage. "You can put...regular old zip tie tags that say this was last checked on this date," he said, describing how even small steps would increase accountability and readiness.

Staffing and volunteer shortfalls were also salient. Michael said AmeriCorps staffed roughly 71 of about 92 open hours and that some members logged "90 hour weeks." He said shelters need a mix of trained medical staff, police or SRO presence, custodial support and cafeteria workers — roles that the town or Red Cross typically supply but that were thin during this activation. Michael urged building local CERT or volunteer rosters so that community members can fill less technical but essential roles, such as helping seniors on and off cots.

Language access and special needs were additional challenges. Michael described relying on state-issued picture-based "show-me" books and ad hoc bilingual members to assist French- and Spanish-speaking visitors; he said the town should plan for translation support in future activations. He also described medical and memory-care situations that stretched available trained personnel.

Committee response and next steps: members asked Michael to share his debrief notes; the committee asked town staff to include these operational points in the upcoming emergency-management review. A committee member volunteered to draft a short thank-you/proclamation to AmeriCorps. The chair said the committee will await the formal town review and then identify outstanding gaps the committee can address.

Ending: The committee thanked Michael for the briefing and agreed to request his notes and the county's inventory assessment; members also discussed how to recruit annual volunteers to inspect Connex boxes and whether the county can provide climate-controlled storage for caches.