During the past week, Puyallup was ravaged by the late January snowstorm that left hundreds of thousands of residents without power and blocked off traffic to dozens of streets.

Through it all, the event proved to be a good example during which everyday people came together. The Church of Nazarene, which opened as an emergency shelter by the Puyallup Emergency Operations Center, was a microcosm of good will.

“We were co-mingling homeless people with people who had nice homes,” said Mike Boisture, associate pastor at the Church of the Nazarene and police chaplain for the Puyallup Police Department. “Some of the homeless guys took care of the older people. There were some homeless who were assigned to a person with oxygen, and they stayed with that person the whole time.”

The Church of the Nazarene took in anywhere from 90 to 108 people from Tuesday through Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Boisture said emergency staff members helped to transport people back to their homes, especially those who had medical needs and those who needed oxygen.

The youngest person sheltered was 4, and the oldest was 102.

“The challenge was trying to keep everyone calm and helping them not get frustrated with the lack of power and not knowing what was happening to their home,” Boisture said.

By checking the Puget Sound Energy website on his iPad, Boisture said he could give people updates.

“It kept them calm,” he said.

During the course of the opened shelter, more than 45 community volunteers assisted. Friday night turned into a smorgasbord dinner for which churches and the national armory pitched in with food.

Social media also played a huge part in the efforts at the shelter.

“We put the need out there on Facebook for heavy blankets to our network of churches, and within an hour, we had them,” Boisture said.

Meanwhile, Puyallup City Manager Ralph Dannenberg said city staff members, especially public works and parks, handled restoration efforts very well.

“I thought our staff did an outstanding job, from snow removal, debris cleanup, police being on the streets, facilities keeping the generators going, and the EOC doing a great job,” Dannenberg said.

Public Works Director Rob Andreotti said his department followed the weather predictions closely and were out the previous weekend, putting de-icing solution on the roads.

“We went to 12-hour shifts around the clock starting Monday,” he said. “We were already anticipating the event, just waiting for it to hit.”

Andreotti said the one troubling factor was the unpredictability of when the snow would hit.

“The snow date kept moving on us,” he said. “It was impossible to predict. We handled the snow removal without effort. The follow-up ice and freezing rain was more than predicted.”

One fortunate thing was severe flooding did not occur, Andreotti sad.

“In 1997, we had a great deal of urban flooding,” he said. “Flooding wasn’t as severe this time because it didn’t warm up as fast.”

Andreotti said another unpredictable part was the significant number of power outages.

“We have never had so much power out in the downtown,” he said.

Sanitary sewer lift stations and the waste water treatment plant all had to be run on power generators. Water reservoirs also were maintained with generators.

Puyallup Police Capt. Dave McDonald said officers had their hands full.

“We were inundated with road closures and traffic hazards,” he said. “We had calls about down lines and down trees and fires from power lines.”

McDonald said officers were sent out to situation after situation to block the roads, assess damage and report it to Puget Sound Energy. The police department also assisted the Puyallup public works department, directing traffic on streets that were shut down.

McDonald said Shaw Road was closed several times during the week. A neighborhood hit hard was Crystal Ridge off 23rd Avenue SE and Shaw Road.

The police department also helped at the Nazarene shelter with hourly walk-throughs during the day, and there was an officer on duty from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Boisture said residents appreciated the police presence.

“People got to see and talk to officers in a different light,” he said.

Reporter Andrew Fickes can be reached at 253-841-2481, ext. 313, or by email at andrew.fickes@puyallupherald.com.