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On August 29, life changed forever for the hundreds of thousands of residents in the city of New Orleans, the Big Easy, the city of jazz, home of the blues, and bitter chicory drinks.
Sitting here in Denver, Colorado thousands of miles away from flood waters and economic disaster, I find it hard to imagine the displacement, the loss and disruption Katrina brought to the Gulf city and to those who used to live there.
Katrina seems to be on everyone's mind. I've had many emails asking for donations from musical instruments to clothes for the evacuees. Some emails are blasting FEMA, the President, and the Mayor of New Orleans. What I'm finding hard to believe is that some are blasting the very folks who survived the hurricane.
Maybe it's our perplexing times. They say we have no heroes today. Anderson Copper of CNN said it best when he was asked about the nursing home owners who abandoned their residences. He said, "In times of disaster some people rise to the occasion and become heroes. Many heroes become cowards. It takes a disaster like this to separate the two." We already know how the President and his family reacted. Barbara Bush's statement about the Houston evacuees "having it better than they've ever had it" was a statement I'm sure she regrets.
We've all heard the stories with happy endings such as the blind man who found his seeing-eye dog, or the man who was reunited with his 12-year-old son, or the nurses’ aide who pulled the elderly residents of the St. Rita to safety while jeopardizing her own. Needless to say, there are many stories to be heard concerning that fateful day when Katrina came to town and took more than she deserved.
From left to right: Tania Forrest, Albert,
and Linda Nelson
Denver can proudly claim a hero who did his best to make Katrina less of a disaster for one family. A Red Cross worker named Albert intercepted an 800 call from Tania Forrest in Tulsa, Oklahoma on August 29. She was frantic about her mother, Linda Nelson, who had called at 9 a.m. Monday morning to tell her daughter that she, her sister Susan, and their friend Melanie were in trouble. They were trapped in the attic, 15 feet of water swirling below them. Half the house was gone, and the water was rising rapidly. As the water rose, the three women were forced into the attic. Mrs. Nelson begged Tania to call 911 right away and let someone know they were trapped and needed help.
When he answered this call, Albert immediately began efforts to assist Tania. He took the proper channels to serve as the go-between to help Tania find and be reunited with her mother.
On that terrible Monday, shortly after Tania got the phone call from her Aunt Susan, the phone lines and power went down. Tania was left frantic and helpless. There was no further communication whatsoever with her mother or the two other women trapped in the attic in the New Orleans’ Ninth Ward of until three days later.
Linda Nelson is the first to admit it was her stubborness that kept her at home that day. She, Susan and Melanie decided to hunker down like so many times before. They bought snack food and cokes. They had their deck of playing cards and box of dominoes to occupy their time while they waited for the storm to be over. She says now, "I packed up last year and I just didn't have the energy to do it again." After all, when you live on the coast during hurricane season the warnings are usually just that. Then Katrina hit.
Linda, Susan and Melanie finished their Vienna sausages, chips, cookies, 1/2 gallon of water, and 1/2 liter of Coke while waiting. They watched helplessly as BoBo, one of Linda's dogs, swam for eight hours beneath them, searching in vain for something to latch onto. On Tuesday they heard helicopters, which gave them renewed hope. They scrambled to the roof where Linda used an ax to break through and expose enough skylight and open space to attract the rescuers. As the helicopters hovered above, Linda dropped her ax into the swollen water.
Tania and Linda
Melanie couldn’t swim. Linda and Susan began working with Melanie, teaching her to float. They knew they would have to float out on something. Not knowing what was outside the attic walls, and feeling fairly certain that water surrounded them, the three women began to plan their escape.
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On Thursday the water had receded enough that BoBo had found a kitchen counter to stand on across from the refrigerator. Linda doesn't remember the exact sequence, but they managed to get the refrigerator door off its hinges. Once it came loose, with Melanie hanging on for dear life, they rammed the floating door through the already mushy walls. Floating outside the remains of the house, the women attracted a motorboat which picked them up. And so began the second leg of their ordeal.
The boat dropped the women off on a dry section of the interstate. Linda said that there was a long procession of survivors trudging down the highway. A four hour walk to the Superdome ensued. Linda saw a man talking on his cell phone and gave him Tania's phone number. She asked him to please call her daughter to let her know that she was alive.
This was how Albert and Tania began the task of tracking Linda. Albert was able to locate her to begin the process of reuniting mother and daughter.
Reunited At Last
Once the women reached the Superdome, Linda said the real hell began. She recalled, "The stench was paralyzing. Someone started shooting. If you got down, you were face to face with raw sewage."
She told me she saw a child die from dehydration, and an old woman beaten beyond recognition. She saw looting, rape, fist fights, and excruciating human misery. For two days Linda, Melanie and Susan did not go to the bathroom. The risk to anyone who wandered far from their spot in the Dome were too great.
On Friday they were directed to the buses leaving for Houston. The elderly, sick, women, and children were to be boarded first. Linda said the men rebelled against this. She saw the men form a human chain to keep them from leaving the Superdome.
I asked her why they did this. She remembered one man saying, "If the women and children leave, we'll be shot down like dogs."
Linda, Susan, and Melanie eventually reached Houston. They were far away from the filth and destruction of the only city Linda had lived in. According to Linda, her great, great, great grandmother was dropped at the docks of New Orleans.
She said, "I'm not going back there to live."
Susan and Melanie are in Houston and Copperas Cove, Texas now. After their reunion in Denver, Linda is living with Tania in Tulsa. Both Linda and Tania are thankful to Albert for his diligence. If it weren't for him, they doubt they'd be together today.
A grateful Tania hugs Albert in tear-filled thanks
Linda is having nightmares. "It's like I'm in a dream. I wake up and think I'm home, then I realize I'm not. Then I remember."
Indeed, she is trying to make a new home for herself, but the bureaucratic mess seems never ending. FEMA sent her a check for $2,000, the amount everyone who was displaced was supposed to get. However, it was sent to her address in New Orleans, which vanished with Katrina.
Like many of her neighbors, Linda did not carry homeowners’ insurance on her home. She did, fortunately, get out with the deed to her house in her possession. She is frustrated because she doubts she'll ever get the FEMA money in time to help her now. Tulsa churches, the Red Cross, and the Salvation Army have pitched in with necessities for her. But, knowing she is not going back to New Orleans to live and that it is next to impossible to reach federal agencies, she is thankful to be alive and with her daughter for now.
Linda says with sad acceptance, "I'm not ever gonna try to understand this."
Editor’s note: Linda Nelson and Tania Forrest can be reached through the Urban Spectrum.
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