Every Day A Challenge

For Hurricane Evacuees

By Nancy K. Crevier

When hurricanes destroyed Gulf Coast communities the end of August and early September, millions of residents were displaced. Some were forced to remain in the devastated area and others were fortunate enough to find a safe landing elsewhere.

Charlene Hibbs fled Kenner, La., and Sunni Plaisance of New Orleans had to abandon her residence in the Crescent City. Both found refuge in Newtown in the days immediately following the storm. Having the support of friends and members of the Newtown community has been a help, but both women have had to draw on inner resources to deal with the lifestyle changes wrought by the storm.

For one of them, the return to her former life in a city still reeling from the effects of the storm has been the path she has chosen. For the other, returning to the South is not a solution, and her future remains a question mark in her mind.

Sandy Hook residents Herb and Dody Flynn hosted Charlene Hibbs and her three sons, Ty, Austin, and Zane, this fall when the hurricane drove the single mother and her children from their home. When she arrived at her friend’s house in September with her all of her remaining worldly possessions packed into the car, Ms Hibbs, a dance instructor like Ms Flynn, was not sure what her next move would be. The boys were enrolled in Sandy Hook Elementary School, but by mid October, says Ms Flynn, it became clear that the family needed to go back to Louisiana to salvage the dance school Ms Hibbs had founded.

“She heard that a lot of the dance studios were reopening, and knew she would lose students if she didn’t go back and get her studio up and running,” Ms Flynn reports. “So they left us on October 11. She [Ms Hibbs] had been in the process of moving her studio [to a new location] when the hurricane hit.”

Ms Hibbs was able to open her new studio the second week in November, but even so, the transition back to the damaged community has been a challenge. The Hibbs’ home was virtually destroyed by the water and subsequent mold, and the young family is living in what Ms Flynn describes as “a shell of a home” while they await the promised trailer from FEMA. Electricity and plumbing have only recently been returned to service in the house, and the boys and their mother sleep on air mattresses on the floor, as all of their furniture was lost to the storm.

While her boys adjust to their posthurricane life in Kenner, Ms Hibbs is also seeking a convalescent home that can take in her father. He weathered the wrath of the hurricane in a hospital, but needs daily care that is difficult for Ms Hibbs to provide, now that he is home.

Just when it seemed things might get on an even keel once again, Ms Hibbs received notice that the landlord had sold the building housing her new dance studio. “She has to move to another place by the end of the year,” sighs Ms Flynn.

An open invitation to return to Sandy Hook remains, says Ms Flynn, and there have been several times they thought for sure their friend would take them up on it. “She’s real strong, though. She seems to be pushing through.”

Sunni Plaisance has been trying to make a go of it in Newtown since Hurricane Katrina forced her to leave her home in New Orleans at the end of the summer. Ms Plaisance, who suffers from a disabling spine disorder and has been on disability for several years, has been the guest of Sheila Maher on The Boulevard. While she is eternally grateful to the generosity of her friend, it has been a trying experience for the woman, with some days much better than others.

“I’ve just been trying to organize here,” she says. “I have a room here and I’ve been trying to make it my own. I’ve lost my independence, though, and right now I can’t see past today.”

The tough transition has not been made any easier by her only income these past three months being money received from one Red Cross check and two from FEMA to get her through.

Returning to New Orleans is not an option for Ms Plaisance. Her asthma would be aggravated by the accumulation of mold and dust in the air. Nor does she have a home to go back to, even if she could. FEMA did an inspection of her house in New Orleans recently. “It was pretty much empty,” says Ms Plaisance, “but had been broken into. My landlord had cleaned out the remnants of what was left. I lost absolutely everything.”

What really burns her up, though, is that although grants for up to $26,000 were made available, FEMA set her net worth at only $720.16. “I’m livid at my treatment by FEMA,” she goes on. “I worked hard my whole life. What’s going on here?”

Ms Plaisance is appealing the settlement, but the process is grueling. She is required to inventory everything of value she owned in New Orleans. It is not an easy thing to do, when any photographs that may have jogged her memory have been washed away. She says, “I walk through my place in my mind and try to remember everything I had.”

What money she has received has been invested in something new to this Gulf Coast native: winter clothing. Adjusting to the freezing temperatures and knee-deep snowfall has been a new adventure. She is grateful, she says, for the invention of Thinsulate and thermal wear and declares, “I will not freeze to death!”

Until the appeal for FEMA goes through, Ms Plaisance says she will remain a guest of Ms Maher. Her hope is that a revised FEMA grant will provide her with the means to live on her own once again.

Despite the hardships she has endured and the hurdles she has left to leap before she can strike out on her own, Ms Plaisance is able to look beyond herself. “I’m going to New York this month and I want to visit the World Trade Center site,” she says. “I want to remind myself that there are others worse off than me.”