When TMI happened announcements were made that young children within a 5-mile radius as the crow flies should be evacuated. My brother Dennis Runion had three daughters between ages 2 and 10. He and his wife packed up and by evening they arrived at our home 300 miles away in Clifton Forge, in southwest Virginia. Dennis turned around and went back to his job at the Hershey Chocolate Factory. His wife and three daughters stayed on with me, my husband, and our two sons. We had a finished room in our basement with pull-out sofa and cots. But I couldn’t imagine having all these kids at home with us day after day. We had no idea what would happen at TMI or how long it would last, so we enrolled the two oldest girls in the elementary school my son attended.
It was interesting to hear their stories every afternoon, comparing this new school with theirs in Hershey. My brother kept in touch with expensive long-distance phone calls and finally after almost three weeks he said it was safe for the children to come back to PA so he came and got his family. Our sons were sad to see their cousins leave!
Janet