Clothes Backlog Hinders Delivery to Quake Victims

City officials are storing several tons of clothing donated by Cantabrigians for earthquake victims in southern Italy until they can find more cardboard boxes for packaging.

The United Corrugated Box Co. of Boston yesterday gave Cambridge 200 boxes--nowhere near enough to hold the flood of donations pouring in from all over the city. Volunteers from the Rindge and Latin School packed some clothes, but tons more are lying loose at the public works garage on Sidney St.

City Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci, who is supervising the collection of clothing, will appeal for more boxes instead of clothing. Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55 asked Vellucci to supervise the appeal for clothing last week.

The response was overwhelming. "People wanted to leave them on my doorstep--I even found one bundle of clothes on the hood of my car," Vellucci said Sunday.

"One lady brought me a box full of bloomers," Vellucci added. "And when I asked her what it was for, she explained to me the Italian ladies would be needing them--all colors, too, pink, blue, yellow," he said.

Vellucci explained that the city ran short of packaging because donors put the clothes in plastic garbage bags.

"The plastic bags all broke and made a bigger mess than the quake," he said.

Once packaged, the clothes will be sent to Summer St. in East Boston for delivery to J.F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. Because of the city-wide backlog of contributions, city officials expect the clothes to remain in Boston until at least late this week.

Receiving problems in the Italian Red Cross and the inaccessibility of the earthquake zone will cause even further delays, a spokesman for Duehay said yesterday.

Delivery problems are worse in Italy than in Cambridge, Leslie Kirwan '79, administrative aide to the mayor, said.

In the past week, the Cambridge chapter of Red Cross has processed about 20 forms from families worried about relatives in Italy.

Dorothy Reiss, deputy director for the Cambridge Red Cross, said yesterday that rescue missions have priority over family inquiries. As a result, the Red Cross may not answer the forms soon.

"Over 50 families have approached us informally about their relatives there, but the communication is still so bad, many people have decided to wait," she said.

In addition, officials at Massachusetts General Hospital have informally met twice since Friday to consider supplying medical supplies to quake victims, although no plans have materialized, Martin Bander, deputy to the general director, said yesterday.

Doctors must decide individually whether to go to Italy, he added.

"We're looking into areas in which we could help without impinging on the money from our own patients," Bander said.

Administrative officials in several other major Boston hospitals have not discussed sending aid.