Evacuees' focus turns to living in community

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Oct 9, 2005 | by CARY LEIDER VOGRIN THE GAZETTE

A seven-word message, written in marker on a board at the Pikes Peak Disaster Recovery Center last week, was a sign of the slowdown.

"Today's status: No buses, No plane arrivals," someone had scrawled.

Monday, the center will scale back its hours, said City Councilman Richard Skorman.

The folks from Colorado Springs Utilities, the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Department of Human Services, Pikes Peak Workforce Center, Federal Emergency Management Agency and a host of other agencies will head back to their own desks in their own offices.

It's unknown how many people came to Colorado Springs after Hurricane Katrina hit more than a month ago.

Records as of Friday show that 563 adults and 353 chil- dren registered for housing, said Nick Horras, the disaster center's deputy director of operations. An additional 30 applicants didn't specify the number of people who would be in their household.

There also could be many more who never sought housing help and are staying with relatives, Horras said.

Last week, many still sat in waiting rooms at the center, seeking help with transportation, clothing or employment.

Some hurricane evacuees, in fact, are still en route here, but not in the numbers seen in recent weeks. Most will join family members settling in Colorado Springs, said Skorman, who helped lead local relief efforts and has set up a "car bank" donation center to provide vehicles to those in need.

Forty-nine vans, trucks and cars have been donated; about half are in good condition, he said. "We have 125 requests for cars, so we're behind on this one," he said.

The big question to come, though, is how these newcomers will integrate into the community once their immediate needs are met. They'll need jobs, to ensure they can pay for rent once FEMA housing benefits run out.

"That's very much on all of our minds," Skorman said. Discussions, he said, are turning toward how to "able them instead of enable them to live here and to be productive."

The Gazette checked in with some of the evacuees we first told you about soon after their arrival.

All were grateful for the community's generosity. Some have found work; those who haven't remain optimistic. One couple found housing but have been told their dog is not welcome. Another man still doesn't even know whether his mom is alive.

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Anastasia Boudreaux said she doesn't need anything except a job.

The 32-year-old New Orleans native said Colorado Springs has been more than generous to her and her two children, 4-year-old TrJean and 11-year-old RJeann.

The rent on their apartment, near Eighth Street and Cheyenne Boulevard, is being covered by Chapel of our Saviour Episcopal Church.

A Mary Kay rep gave her a facial and skin-care products to help her adjust to Colorado's arid climate.

Springs resident Susan Chesney read about Boudreaux in The Gazette and threw her a kitchen shower. Surrounded by about 25 strangers, Boudreaux opened gifts of dishes, glasses, flatware, pots and pans, an apron and even a basket of spices.

"I've been meeting a lot of people -- a lot of good people," Boudreaux said.

Boudreaux ended up in Colorado Springs in an unusual way: She was invited by Joni Lucas, a Colorado Springs woman who flew to the gulf in search of a family needing shelter. Since then, others from Boudreaux's family have made their way here.

But not all her relatives made it through Katrina.

An uncle died in his attic, and a 14-year-old nephew died after falling ill at a shelter in Tyler, Texas.

"I'm resilient," Boudreaux said after opening a manila envelope from the Pikes Peak Workforce Center. "I'm so ready to go back to work."

She had an interview Thursday afternoon.

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Ernest Lee, 45, rolled into town on a Greyhound bus and was among the first to seek help at the Pikes Peak Disaster Recovery Center when it opened Sept. 10.

He fled New Orleans with his son as Katrina approached. His mother, a diabetic, refused to join them -- not wanting to leave her longtime home.

More than a month after Katrina, Lee has no idea of his mother's whereabouts.

"Sometimes I sit and cry about my mom," he said. "But I was lucky enough to get this house."

With Skorman's help, Lee moved into a donated townhome near Chelton Road and Astrozon Boulevard. His 8-year-old son, Jeraithe, is enrolled in third grade.

Lee used money from the Red Cross to furnish his home.

Lee has lupus, an autoimmune disorder he said prevents him from working; he said he scrapes by on disability and Social Security.

He wants to return to New Orleans to look for his mom and see what remains of his old home. But he's never going to live there again.

"Colorado Springs has been good to me. I'd just like to see my family."

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Around mid-September, when The Gazette last talked to Darlene and Charles Pennino -- formerly of Chalmette, La., in hard-hit St. Bernard Parish -- they were mired in red tape.

After escaping the floods -- at one point in the back of a city garbage truck -- the Penninos made it to a camp in Oklahoma. After 10 days, the Red Cross flew them to Colorado Springs to stay with relatives.