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September 14, 2005
Another hurricane-ravaged family makes way to valleyPARENTS HELP YOUNG GULFPORT CLAN GET ESTABLISHED; TAYLORS WILL STAY IN NEVADA
By GINA B. GOOD
Although they had to leave long-time friends and family behind in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Taylors are grateful. They mentioned the help they received from family members and kind strangers in small towns who aided them along the way from the wreckage of their home in Louisiana to Nevada. Rather than looking back at what they have lost, the Taylor family is looking forward to creating a new life. A life that is on the fast track, thanks to the relief services offered in Las Vegas to aid evacuees. The Taylors energetic two-and-a-half-year-old son Damian played with toy cars on the floor of his grandparent's home, as the young couple described their life changing two-week odyssey, traveling through seven states to reach Pahrump. "Here's a picture of the singlewide trailer we were living in," said Robert Taylor, 26, who was born in Las Vegas and moved to Gulfport, Miss., five years ago. The photograph showed that the steps leading up to the home's front door were snatched by 100 mile per hour winds and hurled into a nearby Geo Metro automobile. There was also a hole torn in their home's siding and the skirting all around the trailer had been ripped off. Water ruined everything inside. "The house just across the street from us was decimated," said Taylor. "The street between us is only 16 feet or so across. Why is that home in pieces and ours isn't? It's just so random. "Most of the trailers in our park have been around since before Hurricane Camille," Taylor continued. "Here's a picture (of a trailer) just 200 yards from ours. The whole back is gone." While the Taylors looked through their well-thumbed photographs, their son found a pair of his grandmother's thick-soled tennis shoes and set them up as side rail bumpers for an imaginary racetrack. The child pushed the cars and watched them bounce off the shoes over and over again, laughing and shouting each time. Next, the boy picked up a new plastic helicopter - a gift from generous strangers along the family's route to Pahrump - to fly around his grandfather's airy, window-filled home office across the street from Willow Creek Golf Course. There was no sign of the traumatic events that forced the child and his parents, plus five close friends, to pack up the family van and leave Gulfport on Aug. 28. Hurricane Katrina ravaged their home town the next day, sending a 20-foot tidal surge over their home, ripping up whole groves of mature trees, damaging the buildings where the couple worked and leaving the area without power, working toilets or gasoline. Food and water were scarce. Just one radio station remained on the air, broadcasting information to listeners with battery-powered radios. The couple and their friends stopped in the community of Ocean Springs on their way out of town to secure a friend's pets in a well elevated brick home, leaving the four cats, a bird and a dog plenty of litter boxes, food and water. The evacuees thought they would be back home in two days and had no idea if they would be able to find a motel that would accept their animals. "It was too hot and humid to leave the pets locked in the van at night," said Taylor. Plus, it was already a tight squeeze with eight people in the non-air conditioned vehicle - especially with one passenger on oxygen. "We drove to Dothan, Alabama," said Mary Taylor, 22, as her son Damian crawled onto her lap, contributing animated baby talk to the conversation between his parents and grandparents seated around the dining room table. "Dothan is in the southeast corner of the state," Mary explained. "It was on the inside curve of the hurricane, so we felt pretty safe there. We got a little bit of rain, but basically we watched the whole storm on TV." The couple said they always evacuated for big storms and had left home four times in the past year, each time losing pay for missed workdays and incurring motel and travel costs. At times, family members were called upon to help out financially. "Hurricane Ivan was in Mississippi last year," said Taylor, "but it bypassed us and went to Mobile. Hurricanes and tropical storms have swerved this way or that all around us. But this time they said it was going straight for Biloxi and when it hit force three I knew we couldn't survive that. We took our emergency kit and we left." A small moment illustrating the resilience of the human spirit - or perhaps showing how normalcy is desired in the midst of chaos - is a birthday celebration held at a pancake house the day after the storm. One of the people the Taylors were traveling with turned 15 years old the day Katrina struck. "We got her a birthday pancake with a little candle in it and told her it was a karmic event," Taylor said. "But it's hard to know what to say to a person because her mother worked at a casino - the Beau Rivage - that took a lot of damage and it could be awhile before it reopens. I think her mother was going to Tampa to try to get another job." "We're fortunate that we had family to help us evacuate," said Mary. "If not for them, we'd probably be in a shelter somewhere with all those other people. My father wired us money from Maine and Robert's grandparents and parents also wired us money for the trip. Everybody in the family wanted us to leave Gulfport." While the hurricane threatened the Gulf Coast, Robert's mother, Christy Lyn Gamber and her husband Ronald had traveled from their home in Pahrump to a family reunion in Minnesota. "We had a very tense week," said Christy Lyn. "After the storm hit, the kids were stuck in Dothan. They didn't know when they would be allowed to go back home." Just getting a room in Alabama was an adventure. "Most of the people who evacuated made reservations on their cell phones as they were driving," explained Taylor. "We didn't have a cell phone so we were at the mercy of whatever was left. We finally got to a main drag and parked. Three of us got out of the van and we all ran to different hotels trying to secure at least one room. We were fortunate and managed to find two rooms for one night. The next day, we were lucky again. We found a small, older hotel for the following nights. The people there cut our rate in half and at one point they even brought us some food," said Taylor. "They were really good people." Although they were banking on being able to go back home to Gulfport in two days, that's not how it worked out. "I started thinking about things the second day," said Mary, who has lived in Gulfport from the time she was three years old. "I realized I didn't want to go through all of this again. I talked to my husband and we decided that whether our home made it or not, we would be moving to Nevada to be near Robert's family in Pahrump." "I'd been trying to get them to move out here ever since the baby was born," said Christy Lyn, "but this is not how I'd hoped they would finally get here." "You have to be careful what you wish for," quipped her son. On the third day of their exile, the woman who had left her pets behind was desperate to go back to Gulfport. "We were watching what was happening in New Orleans," said Taylor. "I couldn't let my friend go alone because I didn't trust the situation. So I left my wife and son in Dothan to keep them safe, then went to check on the pets and our homes. I also wanted to just get the lay of the land. "We left Dothan at midnight and drove into the Gulfport area about 8 a.m. because we took back roads all the way," he explained. "We had been told the I-10 was sealed off and no one was allowed back in." Later reports confirmed entire buildings had been lifted by the wind and dropped on the highway. "At 5:30 in the morning we stopped 50 miles from the Mississippi border at a little gas station that had three pumps open. The owners were going to open at 5:45 a.m. because they knew people were desperate for gas so they could get home. They did it to be nice. "We ran across the station by accident," Taylor said. "We were number 46 in line. They weren't rationing, so we filled up and never had to use the gas we brought with us from Dothan. As it was, there were no big gas cans left to buy, so we just carried four one-gallon cans because that's all we could find," he explained. "In addition to gassing up their cars, people were filling gas cans to take back home for their generators." Just north of Biloxi, Taylor drove past a Shell gas station where cars had been lined up for two days waiting for an expected gas tanker. "When we drove into Gulfport, we had about a quarter of a tank left, plus our four cans," he said. "We were so lucky." Once back in their hometown, Taylor and his friend passed a two-mile line of cars pulled to the side of I-10 that had apparently run out of gas. "We didn't know what we were going to need," he said. "We brought six gallons of water with us that we gave away later when we left town. We didn't know if we would get stranded in Gulfport or not. Parts of the roads were under water and we were driving through mud that was 16 to 18 inches deep." Taylor's wife and mother had misgivings about him going back to Gulfport. "I was frightened for him," said Mary. "I heard that in Gulfport there was a police officer shot. I thought my husband might get robbed. None of us knew how much of what was going on in New Orleans was also going on at home. I was nervous about downed power lines and flooding, too." Taylor's mother echoed those fears. "I was afraid someone would knock him over the head for the car," said Christy Lyn. "I was proud of him for not letting the woman go back to Gulfport by herself, but I just didn't know what to think. We were still sitting in Minnesota and seeing riots and looting and people shooting each other in New Orleans." But once in Gulfport, Taylor saw that people in his community had pulled together in simple ways. "When I drove through our neighborhood it was a really surreal feeling," he said. "On a normal day, most people are indoors. But that day, everyone was outside because it was hot inside or their homes smelled funny. People were taking stuff from their refrigerators and throwing it away because the power had been out for so long. Toilets weren't working so there was a small biological odor. You could also smell gas leaks," he said. "People who had battery-operated radios put them on the back end of a truck in their driveway or on the front porch. And while they were roasting a weenie on a little can of Sterno or something, they were listening to the same broadcast I was listening to in my car. Everybody was outside and it brought us all together," Taylor recalled. "People were looking at each other and acknowledging that they knew one another. Normally, you don't know your neighbors. It became a strange kind of bonding experience," he said. "It's a tragedy that it takes a hurricane to bring people so close together." "I didn't realize how just a few people can hold together a community," said Taylor. "There was no TV. In my neighborhood, I heard the same broadcast from three different radio stations. It felt like we were all there was left of the civilized world." "It's kind of weird, but it was an awesome experience just to leave home then come back to see what had happened in Gulfport," he said. "Things you normally would look for driving down the street - say a landmark where you would make a turn - weren't there or were so damaged you could hardly tell where you were. I brought pictures back to the people we evacuated with and asked them if they could identify the streets. They couldn't. "There were no street signs, the gas stations that marked corners are unrecognizable, and that's pretty much all of Gulfport," he said. "As for my little area - our home - there's nothing left for us there. I took pictures of the whole neighborhood. It's just devastation," said Taylor. "I was surprised to see how much of our house was left standing, but big trees were just broken in half," he said with awe. "Big trees were snapped four feet from the ground. It was like a cosmic thresher just came through." "We saw some people looting, but it wasn't like they were taking TVs," Taylor explained. "They were going after food. They were taking blankets and necessities. It was a different kind of looting. There wasn't any way to get money after the storm hit. "I have a picture here of people standing at an ATM," he said. "There had been a radio broadcast the day I was in Gulfport saying Mississippi Power was trying to get electricity to a few select ATMs. Unfortunately, no one knew which ones, so people just lined up at whatever teller machine they found." "At our trailer, I picked up a blanket that Damian got when he was born. I also found a small statuette that we like to call our little family. I brought back a picture of Mary and me at a fair. But really, if we didn't take it with us when we left, it wasn't important. I already had my wife and my son and that's all that matters," said the young husband and father. Taylor has been a fast food restaurant manager for seven years. He and Mary met when he managed a McDonald's restaurant where she also worked. He'd been managing a Quizno's franchise across the street from a busy furniture store before Katrina tore up the street where he worked. "I knew each one of the people who worked across the street because they always came to my store. Every day they came in to buy a sandwich or a cup of chili and go back to work. We did big orders for them. Now the building is gone," Taylor said. Another structure near Taylor's shop housed Triad Broadcasting. Taylor also saw those people for lunch every day. "They had eight radio stations and most of them were staying on air during the hurricane," said Taylor. "When we heard about the 20-foot tidal surge, we were really concerned. Their building is only 17 feet high. I was afraid they didn't make it. "They have one DJ called The Fat Guy. He's not really fat, he's just big," said Taylor. "I'm wearing his cap. One day at work I asked him how I could score a hat like his and he gave me his. I checked his Web site when we got to Pahrump and it said 'I'm still alive, thanks for asking'. I was really glad to hear that." Reunited with his wife and baby after rescuing the pets, Taylor, Mary and Damian headed toward Pahrump. They had been on the road for five days since leaving Gulfport the day before Hurricane Katrina made landfall. "We couldn't take the short route through Mississippi or Louisiana because of the gas shortage," explains Taylor. "We had to go north through Alabama and catch the 40 all the way across. We saw Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and finally Nevada. And because I had a loopy moment, instead of taking the Hoover Dam exit, I ended up going to California on Route 66," he admitted. "Look at all the states we went through in two weeks of being on the road and not really knowing where we were going to end up next. "It was an interesting trip," said Taylor. His wife agreed. "Even once we left Dothan to come to Nevada, there were places in Tennessee that were rationing out gas. There was a gas shortage anyplace near Mississippi because so many people were leaving the state," Mary said. "There was definitely an outpouring of people all throughout the neighboring states," said Taylor. "Every city that we drove through had those highway road signs saying: Shelter this way, Shelter this way. In every city we went through and every small little town. It didn't matter how small it was. "We stayed in a little motel in Hazen, Arkansas," he continued. "I had never heard of the town until we landed there. When we filled out the paperwork to check in, I told her our address wasn't valid any more," he said with a grin. "We told her where we were coming from and she discounted our room. But she also made a call to the relief effort in that little town and the next morning we got a knock on our door at 8 a.m. The Red Cross representative was there. "We got our room comped to us. We also went to the National Guard in Arkansas and they gave us some supplies for the road and some food. They took us into a church meeting hall that had been set up in anticipation of groups of evacuees coming through," said Taylor. "There were tables in the room piled with stuff. This little town had amassed what would have made a thrift store run for a week." "They were expecting 150 people and we were the first ones to arrive," said Mary. "They gave us fresh ice, water, juice and food." "Then a woman asked us if we needed any toys," said Taylor. "As soon as she said the word toys, Damian was off! Woo. And he found the biggest helicopter they had. Those were really, really sweet people." The road trip was on track until New Mexico. "We got stuck in Albuquerque for a bit because our CB joint blew out," said Taylor. "The mechanic took a hit on the labor. He didn't charge us for a lot of extra things he did. The guys in the shop looked over the whole van, topped off the fluids, aired up the tires and made sure they were balanced. The shop got Napa auto parts to give us a 20 percent discount, since they knew what we were going through." "They rushed us through like a pit crew," said Mary. "They put us at the front of the line even though there were three people in front of us. Those people who were waiting were pretty understanding, too," she said. "We were back on the road that day." "The shop let me give them a credit card for the kids," said Christy Lyn. "We wired them a little bit more money and they were on the road again." "Our mindset hasn't changed yet," said Taylor. "We still think of Gulfport as home, even though we won't be gong back. We got here to Pahrump about 2 a.m. and spent the next couple of days in Las Vegas. We went to register with the Red Cross." "They had a cafeteria set up for people to wait while their number was coming up," said Mary. When we got there, our number was 211 and they were just calling 148. We sat in the cafeteria for three hours waiting. But while we were there, they were giving things out like clothes and toiletries. They fed us snacks and lunch. "They gave Damian about two weeks worth of clothes, diapers and more toys," said his father. "He got a truck and Station Casinos gave him a teddy bear. Stations also handed out huge cookies, still warm from the oven. Catholic Charities was bringing stuff and Wal-Mart was bringing clothing straight off the rack," said Taylor. "I sat back and watched everybody from New Orleans. Those people have less than we do. They were still living in a shelter. There were a couple of things we needed so I grabbed the shirt Mary is wearing today. But for the most part when carts came out we watched other people run up to them. They needed it. You could tell who needed it worse. "When we first got there people gave us a toiletry pack and a backpack filled with school supplies," said Taylor. "My mom told them Damian wasn't school age yet, but they said to take it anyway because there was stuff in there he could use to color with." "We ended up using the backpack for a diaper bag," said Mary. "We put everything Damian got in the pack and we still left there with two plastic carrier bags." "Once our number was called we saw people from all the agencies one right after another," Taylor explained. "There were job agencies, temp agencies, and casinos with job openings. They would have given us a voucher for medical services if we needed to go to the hospital. They even had mental health services. We saw a grown man sitting there crying." The couple is hoping they will both find jobs and affordable housing in Las Vegas. "Vegas has just been so helpful and generous. And so have all the people we met along the way," said Taylor. "I have no words for it." Baby Damian broke the silence of the moment by clomping around the room wearing his grandmother's shoes. It seems he thinks living with his grandparents is fun - and as Robert Taylor said, having his family safely around him is what matters when all else is gone. |
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