Islanders have always been self-dependent during winter storms and related power outages, but emergency officials are wondering if now there might be a greater need for an emergency shelter.

At least a few people this week found themselves with no heat, no lights, and no place to go when their homes were cut off from the electrical grid.

One such person was Elizabeth Pierce who arrived at her Deception Pass home on a snowy Sunday evening to find it about as inviting as an ice cave.

“I would have gone to a shelter to get out of the cold,” she said. “But I called everywhere, including churches, and they said ‘Sorry, we don’t have any money’.”

Pierce, an island resident since August, has a job but she didn’t have any money this week. Still, she was unwilling to hole up in her rented cabin until power could be restored. So she started dialing for help. She said she called the Opportunity Council, Department of Social and Health Services, police department, five churches, the Salvation Army and Red Cross. None could provide her a warm place to stay.

Eventually she found some warm souls in a downtown bar where she said sympathetic patrons passed the hat and came up with enough for two nights at the Acorn Motel at $45 per night. “I had better luck getting help from a saloon,” she said.

Pierce has spent years living on the edge in Hawaii and California, and said help in some form was always available in communities there. She was once stranded in Oregon and a church gave her vouchers for gas, food and temporary lodging. “I don’t expect that here,” she said. But she does think the community should offer a warm place to stay during a cold winter’s night.

There was no such place in Oak Harbor or Coupeville. A shelter was set up independently in Clinton at the Clinton Progressive Club, and on Camano Island the Lutheran church opened a shelter.

Another woman concerned about lack of emergency shelter was Geraldine Bullard, who lives at an apartment building for the elderly and disabled in Oak Harbor.

“It was awfully cold,” Bullard said, but her building was without power for only eight hours. Still, she worried about her elderly neighbors, including people in wheelchairs, several of whom are on oxygen, and a man with one leg. What if the power had been out even longer?

“Something has to be done,” Bullard said, concerned that residents can’t even get out of their apartments without help. “In the future there should be some way people can get help. I can’t hardly even walk, much less walk out of here. I’d have to have someone come in a car and drive me.” She thinks the authorities should have a list of needy people to check on during power outages and a way to bring them to a warm place until normalcy returns.

Barbara Johnson, executive director of the Island County Chapter of the American Red Cross, said she didn’t hear from either woman while she was on duty. She monitored the Camano Island shelter, which she described mainly as a “warming shelter,” where people would come in for a while, drink some coffee or cocoa and go back home.

“We had a total of at least five people,” Johnson said Thursday. “We had a family of three for one night.”

Johnson said she heard of no need for a shelter in Oak Harbor or elsewhere on North or Central Whidbey. “We got no calls,” she said. People who do call are referred to the new 211 number which connects those in need with the proper agency. She said such a call during a storm would likely be routed to the Island County Department of Emergency Management. The DEM would make the decision if a shelter is needed, and then the Red Cross would step in to get the shelter established.

Mike Simmons, emergency planner for DEM, said his department doesn’t set up shelters, but other agencies “look to us to see if there’s a preponderance of need.” No such need was determined when thousands of islanders were riding out the storm which caused power outages of up to three days in more isolated parts of Whidbey Island.

In retrospect, Simmons said he agency “could have been a little more proactive. Next time we’ll probably try to get more ahead, and say the shelter’s here if you want to come.”

Simmons said the DEM has “a number of shelter agreements with the Red Cross, churches and schools,” but there was no detectable demand for shelter space. “We never had any requests for shelter,” he said.

However, Simmons acknowledges that there may be elderly people who are cold and scared, but don’t know where to go for help or how to get there over icy roads.

Chief Marv Koorn of North Whidbey Fire and Rescue said his volunteers spent many hours responding to accidents and other storm-related problems, but nobody asked for shelter. “There was no need, to my knowledge,” he said. He’s been with the department for 29 years and can’t recall a shelter ever being set up. But he said a shelter would be easy to establish. Most fire stations have generators and kitchen facilities, but someone would have to bring in cots, probably the Red Cross.

“We’ve been talking about that,” Koorn said, recalling discussions with other emergency agencies. “How many people are there with medical needs that need electricity? And there are some homeless around here. We could do a survey, all plan together.”

Chief Joe Biller of Central Whidbey Fire and Rescue said nobody asked for shelter in his community, either. “We didn’t have any requests or need for it,” he said. He can recall talking about opening a shelter once or twice during his 18 years of service, but one has never been set up. “But we’re prepared,” he said. “We have plans to use churches or schools or even fire stations.”

Biller and the others agree that the vast majority of islanders or either prepared for a storm or have friends or relatives to take them in when their power goes out. “Most hunker down and stay in place,” he said.

Central Whidbey was without power for about two days, depending on the location. Biller said one couple with no water came to the Race Road fire station for a shower. “He was a former volunteer and knew our hospitality would be there,” he said with a chuckle. But that was the extent of people asking for help.

Biller too agreed that there might be people out there who would take advantage of a shelter if they knew it was available and had a way to get there. “Maybe we’re not in touch,” he said.

Simmons of the Department of Emergency Management said any shelter would have to be advertised in advance of a storm. “In the future we might establish one and see if people come in,” he said.

That’s all that Elizabeth Pierce, for one, is asking for. She describes herself as a Christian who doesn’t think it’s right that “you can get more help from a bar.”