Local couple aids hurricance victims Salvation Army takes to Florida By Anna Krejci News-Chronicle Two Green Bay residents returned home after spending seven days serving meals to hurricane victims in Florida. Sue and Leon Engler were two Salvation Army volunteers who fed about 3,000 hungry hurricane survivors from a truck equipped with a generator, refrigerator and other food preparation equipment. They served entrees ranging from pork to ravioli to sloppy Joes, along with treats like doughnuts. From Sept. 30 to Oct. 6 the Englers worked 13- to 14-hour days to feed people in Lakeland, Winter Haven and Auburndale in central Florida, and Coco Beach in the eastern part of the state. They eventually helped people in Palm Beach as well. The aftermath of four hurricanes - three of them crossing the same areas of central Florida - left millions without power and with little means of preparing food. The Englers had no previous disaster relief experience, except for staffing a local Salvation Army canteen used to feed Wisconsin firefighters while they extinguished a barn fire. The electric company that services 35 counties in the region, Florida Power and Light Co., reported it brought back power for 3.5 million homes and businesses after hurricanes Charley and Frances hit the state on Aug. 11 and Sept. 3. In exchange for stovetops and ovens, residents grilled meat on open fires. One day the Englers served 1,000 people who had come to a nearby college to sign up for Federal Emergency Management Agency aid. On average, they fed about 400 people a day, Leon said. Some people had lived for two months without electricity. By the time the Englers left, power was being restored to more people. As a result, the number of people requesting food dropped significantly, Leon said. During the Englers' stay, the people were as optimistic as to be expected. "I didn't meet anybody that was irritable or crabby," Sue said. Sue, unfomfortable working in Florida's humid, 90-degree temperatures, said she would never complain about Wisconsin's humidity again. When she told people she was from Wisconsin, she recalled their reaction; they preferred Florida over Wisconsin freezes. They defined Wisconsin as "the frozen tundra" and said they could never live there, Sue said. The Englers, and countless other volunteers running 60 Salvation Army canteens across the state, provided more than 1.2 million meals up to Oct. 4; they supplied victims with mops and bleach to confront the mold problem remaining after flood waters had subsided from buildings. The clean-up process continued. FEMA tarps were being used to patch leaky roofs and trees were cleared. "Signs must be the first thing that goes in a wind storm," Sue said, based on her observation that businesses lacked them. To date, after hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, more than 2.4 million meals have been provided by more than 4,000 volunteers. According to a Sept. 29 National Salvation Army report, 43,000 hours of work have been volunteered.