Newspaper: The Patriot
Date: April 3, 1979
Title: First Baby Born to Evacuee in Midst of Nuclear Scare
Author: Tom Kelchner, Staff Writer

Picture Caption: This 5-pound, 10 ounce unnamed baby girl will have a lot to talk about when she gets older. Her mother, Mrs. Cynthia Simpson of Harrisburg, was at the Hersheypark Arena evacuation center prior to delivering her baby Monday morning at Holy Spirit Hospital.

As one might expect in an evacuation center full of pregnant women, nature took its course Monday.

One of the evacuees at Hersheypark Arena delivered the child she was expecting and five more could be along at any time, according to Red Cross Shelter Manager Bruce Beaton.

Cynthia Simpson, 24, of 1949 (illegible) Road, was taken from the shelter to Holy Spirit Hospital Monday morning and delivered a 5-pound, 10-ounce daughter at 11:10 a.m. hospital officials said.

Beaton said there are five other expectant mothers among the 200 (illegible) who are staying at the center.

The center is equipped to cope with any births which might occur on short notice, he said.

A fully equipped obstetrics room staffed by registered nurses and a physician has been set up at the center in addition to a staffed infirmary, he said.

Red Cross and Herco staff fed supper to 216 persons Monday evening, he said, after the group watched a magician and Walt Disney movies throughout the day.

“Hershey Arena people are really great,” Beaton said.

“Anything we want we ask they get it, they’re really super. Every request we’ve had they’ve honored.”
About 55 evacuees from Frey Village Retirement Center in Middletown have settled into the South Mountain Restoration Center in Franklin County after being transported there Saturday in buses and ambulances, according to center administrator Donald Downs.

The center, run by the state Department of Public Welfare, has facilities to handle 1,000 residents but only had about 750 before the evacuees arrived, Downs said.

An additional 16 residents of the Homeland Nursing Home at 1901 N. Fifth St. were taken to South Mountain, he said.

“They survived the trip very well, they’re comfortable and well fed,” he said.

About 30 staff members at the center have volunteered to work double shifts of 16 hours and volunteers have helped the evacuees when they arrived and since, Downs said.

“We’re prepared to take care of them until the crisis is over,” he said.

Another 21 Homeland residents were sent to a second evacuation center in Franklin County on the campus of Wilson College in Chambersburg, this weekend, according to Homeland Resident coordinator Ginny Capp.

Capp said the 21 at Wilson are staying in Disert Hall Dormitory and are taking their meals at college dining facilities.

“In a way it was a big adventure for them,” she said.

“School students (from Wilson) have been coming down and talking to residents to help them along and cheer them up,” she said.

Capp said she and the residents found Chambersburg peaceful after “the high anxiety level in Harrisburg.”