Aneisa Sartoresi was home without power when Christopher Martinez knocked on her door Wednesday. 

Martinez, the Hispanic liaison for the City of Cleveland, told her she could find  warm food and power outlets at a nearby church, Iglesia Nueva Vida in Clark-Fulton. 

At eight months pregnant and already the mother of two boys, Sartoresi took Martinez up on the offer. She had eaten most of her fresh food and brought the rest with her to donate. She did have to throw some food away but tried to minimize the waste, she said. 

On Tuesday night, Sartoresi dismissed the tornado alert on her phone. She didn’t think it was that serious until she heard the rain and then a loud thud outside. A tree had landed on the powerline next to her home. It took 24 hours for the tree to be removed. 

“My house was really shaking,” Sartoresi said. “I thought the tree had fallen on my roof, with how loud the crack was. But I was too scared to go upstairs and find out.” 

When she opened her door to look outside, she saw lawn furniture flying everywhere. 

On Wednesday, Martinez and her sons spent about 10 hours at the church talking to neighbors and eating pizza and cheesy potatoes. 

The boys got their faces painted, drew on the sidewalk with chalk and read books to pass time while their tablets charged. The church offered a nice respite from sitting at home in the dark, Sartoresi said. 

“It’s little things like this that makes you realize we should be working like this as a community and as mankind itself,” she said. “This is not something that just one of us or a couple of us are going through, it’s everybody.”

As Sartoresi sat outside the church again Thursday, she sipped coffee and filled in an application to get a reimbursement for her food stamps. Her boys sat next to her, watching kung-fu videos. 

Dozens of others walked in and out of the kitchen, visited with friends,  ate sandwiches and pastries and drank water, soda and coffee. 

The church will be open until 6 p.m. today, offering people coffee, water, food and a place to charge phones and spend time with neighbors. 

Responding to community needs

Martinez, the Hispanic liaison, woke up concerned Wednesday morning after seeing the magnitude of the storm damage. He reached out to Pastor Jose Reyes, and they met at 10 a.m. to talk about how they could help the community. 

“When the community needs something, we need to respond,” Martinez said. 

Martinez proposed a 24-hour shelter. Reyes immediately said yes to the idea and they got to work, pulling in as many resources as they could to help. The church offers a food pantry every two weeks, which serves more than 600 people a month, so they had non-perishable food available. 

Local businesses, such as Empanadas Latin Street Food and Guaterriqueña Bakery, donated meals. Ward 14 Council Member Jasmin Santana and the Hispanic Business Center provided grocery gift cards to people.

Stacks of diapers and wipes filled a table along one wall and round tables filled the space between the door and the kitchen. Outside, two tables were set up with dominoes, giving the adults something to do to pass the time as well. 

Donations from near and far

On Wednesday, the church served more than 300 people. Food and water donations poured in from local restaurants, some that used generators to keep their kitchens working through the power outage. A Lorain woman made a tray of arroz con gandules, or rice with peas, and a tray of beans, then drove an hour to donate it, Martinez said. 

By early afternoon Thursday, more than 100 people had stopped by the church to drop off food, eat and chat with neighbors. Many people walked out with a case of water to take home. 

Inside, Martinez helped Isaias Martin plug in his Nebulizer machine for a breathing treatment. Martin has asthma. He sat down and pulled the breathing mask over his nose and mouth. A few minutes later, a kitchen volunteer brought him a turkey sandwich and coffee. 

In the kitchen, a pyramid of sandwiches wrapped in paper bags sat ready to serve. Maria Mercedes Francisco added ingredients and stirred a large pot of chicken broth they would serve for lunch. The pot covered the entire stove. 

People washed dishes and carried food, water and ice into the kitchen. Volunteers walked around making sure everyone had what they needed. 

‘The mission of the church is to help the community’

As Reyes talked about why it’s important for the church to open its doors to the community, people constantly walked up to hug him and say hello. They kissed his cheek and smiled, asking how he’s doing. They asked if he’s accepting clothes donations. They squeezed his arm or hand with affection. 

Reyes and a team from the church spent the night there, leaving their doors open to the community. 

“The mission of the church is to help the community,” Reyes said. “There needs to be an organization that’s open for everyone. Because people don’t know what to do, and they need someone to guide them and help them, and who better than the church?” 

By 6 p.m. Thursday, the church will have been open 24 hours. But if he sees the need to stay open later, and has the resources to do so, Reyes might keep the church open longer, he said. 

‘It’s like a sigh of relief’

Sartoresi said she’s not sure what she and her boys will do to get by the next four days, if that’s how long it takes before she gets electricity again. But for now, she’s happy to have the nearby church and its resources. 

“It’s like a sigh of relief with what we’re going through right now,” she said.