NATCHEZ — On Friday, the Adams County Community Safe Room was still home to 32 flood-displaced residents, with more than 20 of them being from Crosby.

Adams County Emergency Management Director Robert Bradford said the county is planning to keep the shelter open for another week. The shelter is being managed by the American Red Cross, with volunteers helping out, including some from the Mississippi Division of Medicaid.

Bradford said the people from Crosby are waiting on temporary housing, and the American Red Cross is working on getting the Louisiana people back to their home state.

Bradford said 13 children are being housed at the safe room. He said all of them are from Crosby.

Catholic Charities is accepting donations in Vidalia at the First Baptist Church on Texas Street. Bradford said the Miss-Lou community has been good to the people at the shelter.

The people living at the shelter do not have many needs, he said.

Bradford said the Crosby residents assessing damage and transporting students could use gift cards to help pay for gas. And he said the shelter would always accept water.

Anything the shelter gets that the displaced people do not need is being sent to the Crosby and Centreville areas to help the communities get back on their feet, Bradford said.

Catholic Charities can be contacted at 601-442-4579.

Crosby Mayor William Hall visited the shelter on Friday and said the town is recovering.

“We are trying to get everything straight,” he said. “The water has receded, and we are trying to get everything cleaned up. There is a lot of debris in town and people are having to throw away a lot of ruined materials.

“People have had to get rid of so much stuff.”

Hall said most of the people who are coming back to Crosby in the near future have already returned to begin the clean up efforts. The majority of the people remaining at the shelter will return months down the road, he said.

The approximately 20 people at the shelter lived in an apartment complex that is not fit to host residents, so Hall said the people will be moved to government subsidized housing elsewhere until the complex can be renovated.

The staff at the shelter and the Red Cross have been good to Crosby’s people, Hall said.

“If not for the Red Cross, we’d be in such bad shape,” Hall said. “They have been fantastic.

“The people of Natchez and the staff here, they have helped save us. They have treated us like family. We are so appreciative.”

Torrential rains in Louisiana and south Mississippi created historic crests in area rivers, which forced people out of their residences in the Crosby area. Over the weekend, as many as 85 people were at the shelter, the majority of them from the Crosby area.

Most Crosby residents staying at the shelter left Monday to start the rebuilding process.

The recently built Safe Room, not intended to be a long-term emergency shelter, had some growing pains as county staff and elected officials scrambled to find showers and places for pets to stay this past weekend.