Special to the Bulverde News

When Church Hill Middle School Prin-cipal Dani Baylor learned her campus was one of three Comal ISD campuses, along with Morningside and Freiheit elementary schools, selected as a shelter for Hurricane Ike evacuees, she didn’t know what to expect.

When nearly 300 Burmese evacuees fleeing Port Lavaca exited buses and started entering CHMS, school administrators knew they would have to be even more prepared.

“Our number one goal was to make everyone feel like they were at home,” Baylor said. “Because this is our home, and we wanted everyone to feel absolutely welcome. But what made things tough is all we had was a 14-year-old translator. We knew we needed to be ready for just about anything.”

Just about anything was exactly what happened.

The evening of Sept. 12, word spread quickly at CHMS that one of the evacuees was in a bathroom going into labor.

EMS was quickly called and would arrive in less than five minutes, but that wasn’t enough time for very-soon-to-be mother Ku Paw.

Baylor, Church Hill Middle Assistant Principal Chelsy Merrill and Family and Consumer Science teacher Lindy Dowdy were among those at the school volunteering that evening.

“Someone came up to Chelsy and told us someone is in labor in the bathroom,” Dowdy said. “Mrs. Baylor said thank goodness we have a doctor up here volunteering. I had to tell her he was a psychiatrist.”

Indeed, Dr. Mark Burns was present as a volunteer, but the last time he had to deliver a child was in medical school.

Luckily, even though the last time Burns delivered a baby was 1985, he did his medical residency at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, which at the time had the third-busiest birthing center in the nation.

“I actually delivered 20 to 25 babies as a resident,” Burns said. “It all came back to me pretty quickly. There wasn’t much time to be nervous.”

Merrill retrieved towels and placed them under Ku Paw. She also helped work with the translator, while Dowdy was in close quarters helping support the mother and the doctor. Nurse Peggy Tielke, another volunteer, was also present.

“It was scary,” Merrill said. “I kept thinking, “This baby is not supposed to come out right now.’”

But 6-pound, 3-ounce Katrina Htoo had other ideas, as she indeed came into this world just minutes before paramedics could arrive and take over.

“It was amazing,” Baylor said. “Everyone involved was awesome. They just reacted and did what needed to be done.”

At last report, mother and daughter are doing just fine and the rest of the evacuees, who left the Comal ISD campuses on Sept. 13 after a four-day stay, made it back to Port Lavaca safely.

The story made state, national, and worldwide news, even appearing on a Tokyo television station.

As for Baylor, Merrill and Dowdy, who will assuredly tell this story countless times over the course of their lives, one of them is thinking creatively ahead.

“I’m waiting for someone to ask me this question in an interview,” Merrill said. “When they ask me what’s the hardest thing you ever had to do as an assistant principal, I’ll say, ‘Run a shelter and deliver a baby.’ I don’t think anyone will be able to top that.”