BATON ROUGE - Even though the snow has stopped, the freezing temperatures still remain. Shelters are still open to those in need, but some are expected to close Thursday.Dawoo Mills has been an occupant at the Dr. Leo S. Butler Community Center since Tuesday. "If it hadn't been for this position - me being here at this community center, I probably would've frozen out there trying to find a place to stay," he said. Mills has been homeless for two months. He says this is the first shelter he's stayed in and he feels as though he's at home. "No one should have to be out there in the cold. First thing I say 'where is humanity?' Humanity doesn't have excuses. People come together and make sure everybody is safe. And coming here, I feel safe," he said. He encourages people who are in a similar situation as him to not be afraid to ask for help."Don't be afraid if somebody else is seeing the way you are. Because only you can get help if you ask for it and if you're sincere about asking for help, go to them. Keep your head up high because somebody is watching, with people watching you, someone is making a phone call somewhere to get you some help," he said.A family of four was forced to evacuate their apartment on 17th Street Wednesday morning after the snow caused a transformer to blow."I was woken out of my sleep by mom because there was smoke. It smelt like something was burning. There was a lot of smoke everywhere, and there was like a boom. First, she got us all out the house and the thing started crackling like fireworks," Kedeidre Vance said. Vance and her mother then helped in getting their neighbors to safety."I ran out the gate and bammed on the door, bammed on the door, bammed on the door until she came out and she didn't have any clothes on. So I ran in her apartment, grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her and her baby and got them out of there," the mother said.The family is waiting to be notified on when it's safe to go back home. "I'm kind of frustrated because we got to think of our next move and stuff, but we're going to be okay. As long as we're together, we'll get through anything together," Vance said. City-parish officials will assess all shelters that were open during the storm, looking to possibly move occupants to a larger shelter.Permalink| Comments