On day one of our travels, we visited 9 shelters, throughout New Iberia area. The next day, we were off again, more shelters to visit, more needs to meet. We caught some news throughout the day, and we could see the weather was changing. Hurricane Rita was on her way, coming our direction. We knew we had to get going, to get out of Rita's way. On this day, we met a family in a lobby of a hotel (which was being used as a temporary shelter), they needed help burying their father, who had died in a rest home in New Orleans area. We called Red Cross, at this time they didnt have funds for this, but we continued and called the Catholic Dioces. Finally someone to help, we called the family back, talk about grateful. It was getting dark and we decided to make one last stop at the Yambilee Building in Opelousas, LA. The parking lot was full and we asked for the shelter manager, she introduced herself, her name was Helen. As we chatted we found out they mainly had Katrina victims, and all had been placed eleswhere, so they were closing this shelter, but within minutes the parking lot was inadated with people running from Hurricane Rita, she was right behind them. So a decision was made to reopen this shelter, it was obvious they would need help, so the 3 of us decided to stay here for the night and help out. This is the location where I met Helen from Iowa, she was the shelter manager, and Jared a 27 year old from Iowa and Jenny from Los Angeles. It was late and no one had eaten, and more and more people were pulling off the freeway to find a place to stay the night. We had the local Police Department and Sheriff Department there to help keep things in order. People were hungry, but we had very little food, but we heard food was on the way. This was the first night I heard this gentleman's name, but it sure wasnt the last. His name was "Reggie" . Reggie was a local man that knew how to get things done so i was told. It wasnt long and sure enough Reggie had dinner there for everyone. The best ever! Marinated pork with wet okra and red beans and rice. As the evening progressed, more and more people showed up. For the most part, they only had what was on their backs. Very few blankets, pillows and mattresses were available. The community had donated about 30 cots that had to be put together, what a challenge that was! They were brand new Army cots, they had to be stretched, I could only assemble them partially, Yee and Jared had to finish them. The beginning of teamwork! One of the funniest things happened that night, God mixed just the right amount of humor into all this. Helen had gone to take a shower earlier in the evening and had her dirty clothes for the week in a green garbage bag in the back seat, intending to do some laundry later, but Jared (bless his heart) asked to take afew evacuees to take a shower, so he took the car. These folks said they didnt have any clean clothes, so Jared assumed these clothes in the green garbage bag were donated clothes to give away, so he gave them away to these people! Once he got back to the shelter, and they walked in, Helen started noticing people in her clothes, first socks, then shirt and shorts, she wasnt going to say anything, but realized most of her clothes had been handed out to others, and she still had a week to go! You gotta know Jared to love Jared!
Its now Thursday, September 22nd, still no food, no supplies, and more and more people...Its dinner time and no food in sight... i had a small skillet and one pot. I boiled some sauages, then sliced them and fried them, placed in the oven to keep warm, made 6 boxes of mac n cheese, open 2 large gallon cans of Texas style beans, made a darn good dinner for about 50 people, then again Reggie showed up with food for everyone eles, about 10 pm, better late than never! We knew we had to leave in the morning, due to being in an unsafe building, not able to withstand Hurricaine Rita, which was about 24 hours away. At this time, we had about 230 people with us, all aware that in the morning we had to leave, not sure where we would be going just yet, everyone else had been evacuated up towards Monroe and Shrevport, but the highways were too crowded for us to leave, and they were running out of gas on the roads.
Friday, Sept 23rd: most people were up and about by 4 am, leaving for Monroe, or at least higher ground. All shelters in this area were to be evacuated, but time was running out and the highways were bumper to bumper stopped cars and no gas to be had, in fact this is the time when they had to send out gas tanker trucks to fill peoples cars with gas. So, we got word from O-E-P (office of emergency preparedness) that we would be moving to North Central High School, approx 10 minutes on the outskirts of town. We had to load all our supplies we had collected, including cots, pillows, blankets, paper products, food, bottled water and anything eles remaining that we could use. We had the help of trustees (men and women in orange) from the parish jail. It was time to leave the Yambilee building, with a police bus in front, several dozen cars carvanned behind and a police bus picking up the tail end. i had never seen it rain so hard, the outer banks of Rita was already there. We arrived at our next shelter.... North Central High school, still in Opelousas. It was a fairly new all brick High School, appeared to be a safe place. One of the first people we met was Raymond, the janitor. Raymond was the most kind, caring person. Raymond never left our side from the time we arrived on Friday until we left on Monday. He knew everything there was to know about this High School. We were blessed to have him there with us. It was fun to get to know him over the next 4 days. Once we got to the high schoool, we had alot of work ahead of us. Beginning with unloading supplies, setting up the cots again, finding more bedding since we only had 60 cots, getting our evacuees settled and organzied (approx 250 people). Most people helped unloading supplies. there was this one particular gentleman that was a big help. through out the day, he did whatever we asked him to do... the lunch ladies came back down to the school and figured out what they could use to create a meal for everyone this evening, what a blessing they were. As i was in the kitchen helping, this same gentleman appeared again... he helped pass out the food. His name was Wadell. I'm guessing he was in his late 30's or early 40's. everytime i was in the kitchen i ran into him. After one of the meals there were several of us chattting with Wadell, we learned alittle bit about him, he worked as a plant supervisor for Exxon Mobil in New Orleans and was accustomed to taking care of large numbers of people. He said his mother cooked in large kitchens and he learned by watching her. He also said he could outcook anyone, hands down! People in Louisana are proud of their ability to cook...(it was one of the many joys, talking to people about food) Just about everyone I met, we'd talk about food.... Wadell, Big MaMa, several of the sheriffs and fireman and even the National Guard. It's amazing some of the things they'd eat, I even learned that on Oct 1st, it was opening day for squirrel hunting, and they were great eating! i think everyone agreed that the Red Cross Volenteers from the West Coast needed to be given a lesson in cooking and eating! Later this day, we had some more time to talk with Wadell. He was from New Orleans, and he was evacuated to the Super Dome in New Orleans when the levees broke. He and his family were there together, he said he saw horrible things there, things no one should see, his wife "took sick" there as well. She had a seizure and needed immediate meical attention, which she didnt recieve. In all the confusion he and his wife were separated from their 6 kids. The two of them were airlifted to a hospital, where she lasted 7 days and "passed". This was so difficult to hear, hard to believe what he was saying. They had been married for 15 years, and he showed us a picture of her, her drivers license, the only picture he had of her. He continued to tell us that it took 7 days after her passing for him to find where his 6 kids were and afew more before he was reunited with them. He said he had made mistakes when he was young and he didn't want his kids to make, and he wanted to set a good example for them with his work ethic. He said he missed his wife, and he had shed tears for her, but he realized that he could either mourn in a way that would render him useless and possibly even kill him, or he could mourn for her but do his very best to care for his family and look forward to the day when he would see her again. He chose the latter. He said he realized he needed to keep disciplining his kids, but he was going easy on them right now because he knew they missed their mother. It's not very often you meet people like Wadell. He and his family quietly left the shelter the morning after Rita hit.....
With God's AMAZING GRACE..... Wadel and his family and all the others have been blessed.... more struggles and blessing ahead....
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