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Evacuees find shelter in Maysville
Thursday, September 4, 2008 12:22 AM EDT
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| The Storey family, Chris, Luke, and Amy are staying in Maysville with Ben Breslin after being displaced by Hurricane Gustav. The family is from Louisiana. -- Terry Prather/Staff |
"The stress of the storm began about a week before it hit," said Amy, a southern Louisiana native.
"It was not a question of if, but when," said Chris.
The family began to prepare for the evacuation immediately after learning of the approaching storm. Amy and Chris said they made a list to prepare including important things to bring like photos, hard drives, important papers, anything of value. The only catch was they could only take what would fit in the trunk of their Ford Focus. Windows on their home were boarded up and they began to use up the food in the refrigerator.
"We make sure there's enough water for when we get back and stock up on non perishables. The list includes not just what we need to leave but what we need to come back to," said Amy.
The family said one a top priority is helping the community and family when they return home.
"It's all about community and family," said Amy.
The family resides in Thibodaux, La., a town located in the southeast part of the state.
"We step up the importance of the things we're doing. There's a purpose for everything we do," said Chris about the time prior to evacuating.
Luke said he was forced to really decide what he likes to play with and what has meaning to him. He decided to take two things -- a gift from a family friend, Pie Baye, who had died when he was young. Luke packed two statues she had given him from her home that he wanted to keep.
"It's just stuff," said Luke about the things he had to leave behind. "It can be replaced."
Among the things Luke left behind is a Lego set he paid for with money earned by mowing lawns. The set was too big to fit into the car.
"You realize your priorities when you gotta pack a trunk full of the things from your house you want to keep," said Chris.
Amy works at the night shift LSU Hospital.
"We talked to each other like 50 times to prepare to evacuate," said Amy about her phone conversations with Chris. "Everyone was preparing to evacuate."
Amy got off work Saturday after a 12-hour shift and the family began its journey north to escape Gustav.
"At least two million people evacuated Louisiana," said Amy, "which is the most to have ever evacuated for a hurricane."
The family said the trip was slow but steady.
"As far as you could see in front of you were taillights and as far as you could see behind you were headlights," said Chris.
The family was headed originally toward Franklin, Tenn. The trip normally takes around nine hours but took at least 20. The road was filled with hundreds of thousands of cars.
"It was almost textbook like," said Chris. "It was very organized. Nobody was angry but everyone was very nice. Everywhere we stopped on roads everywhere, everybody was great.
"Everybody watched out for everyone because we knew we were all in the same boat," said Amy.
The Storeys said they originally planned to drive to Texas to stay in a family home but decided to head to Kentucky to stay with Chris's brother, Curtis. The family was afraid Texas would get hit by the hurricane.
"We knew we could get back sooner from Kentucky that Texas," said Amy. "Getting home is very important to us. We want to help our neighbors and tarp up our home before more rain."
Since Friday, the family has maybe had 25 hours of sleep. Amy only had five in the first 51 hours.
After staying one night in Franklin, the family drove six hours to Maysville where they have been staying with family friend Ben Breslin.
"We're so thankful we are able to stay here," said Amy.
"We appreciate everything everyone has done to help us," said Chris.
The family said evacuating was especially hard because they don't know what they will find when they return. Amy's brother and sister had to stay behind with emergency services.
"Fortunately when phone service went out we could communicate with them with text messages," said Amy. "They could text us OK, and at least we knew they were alright."
Amy's mother was on a trip to Massachusetts with her sisters and didn't have time to prepare for the hurricane.
"But I know she's safe," said Amy.
Another sister and her two children were forced to evacuate by bus and are currently at a shelter in northern Louisiana.
"It's the people. As long as you have family around you, it's good," said Amy.
Claire is eagerly waiting to hear about how her building survived the hurricane as well as her two birds she was forced to leave behind.
The hurricane hit on Monday, and the family was happy to be more than 24 hours ahead of the storm. They have since viewed some of the damage on the Internet and have talked with Amy's brother and sister who notified them that half of their roof was lost.
Chris said he viewed photos on-line of almost every gas pump leaning over.
"We had a lot of power lines down that snapped in half and are laying on the side of the road," said Amy.
Fronts of buildings, roofs, walls, all gone.
"A huge cathedral roof peeled off like it was nothing," said Chris.
A nearby trailer park, gone.
The eye of the hurricane went through the area close to the Storey's home. Unlike New Orleans, which didn't get hit that hard, the Storey's home did.
"You can't even get to our house right now because of the live wires and debris everywhere," said Amy.
"We really don't know what we're going home to," said Chris.
The family can't go home until they have a generator for air conditioning. Amy said her husband has MS and her mother-in-law is 77; they can't function in a healthy environment without cooler air. Local hospitals are suffering from the hurricane with broken pipes and exterior destruction. Ninety five degree weather adds to the misery.
"We have lots of destruction to go home and work through so that people can go back to their lives," said Chris.
The family is waiting to see when they can return home.
"It's kind of like a bad vacation," said Chris about the trip.
The Storeys said they are much luckier than many families forced to evacuate. The evacuation costs money in gas, food, and purchasing basics. Many families don't know if they have jobs to come back to and bills continue to come in.
"It's easy to evacuate. It's not easy to stay evacuated," said Chris.
The family is planning on returning with tarps, a luggage rack, gas, food and ice.
"Some people leave and come back with more than they left with," said Chris.
To find out more about how you can help with hurricane relief go to http://www.louisiana.gov.
Contact Barbara Goldman at barbara.goldman@lee.net or by calling 606-564-9091, ext. 274.
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