Posted on 09/06/2005 10:15:17 AM PDT by Abigail Adams
Families of different backgrounds now have similar woes
New Orleans lawyer and landscaper both seek to restart their careers in Bay Area
- Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 7, 2005
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/07/MNG8MEJD0C1.DTL
Before Hurricane Katrina washed away nearly all their families' possessions, Brandon Mary and Armand Watson lived at different ends of the economic spectrum in New Orleans.
On Tuesday, each man's family was in the Bay Area with little more than the clothes on their backs and the love of relatives, trying to restart their lives in Northern California.
As of now, only one man intends to return with his family to New Orleans.
Lured west by family, friends and perhaps more opportunity than they'd find in larger cities closer to home, they are among the displaced Gulf Coast residents who are landing in the Bay Area.
Mary, a lawyer, lived in a nice part of uptown New Orleans near Tulane University. Watson, a landscaper, rented a three-bedroom home downtown with his wife, their four children and two nieces.
Their backgrounds may differ, but they have one thing in common: Right now, what each needs most is a good job.
Mary was born into a family of doctors -- extending from his great-grandfather to his sister -- that had lived in the same area of New Orleans since 1890. Two weeks ago, the 39-year-old had a thriving law practice and a four-bedroom home. He captained a 200-man contingent in the city's Mardi Gras parade.
As Hurricane Katrina approached, Mary, his wife and two young children heeded the order to evacuate the city. They packed a change of clothes and their 80-pound Doberman in their SUV and monitored the storm from a friend's home in Monroe, La., a city a few hours north of New Orleans. They figured they'd be back within 36 hours and even made plans to buy a generator or two on the way home.
But when the city's levees gave way, and New Orleans flooded, Mary knew that his professional life -- as well as the city's -- would change forever. Most of his clients' businesses were submerged under the floodwaters. And he knew that Baton Rouge, Houston and other nearby cities would be filled with others ex-New Orleans residents hunting for work.
So Mary looked elsewhere.
His wife, Melissa, contacted her brother, Michael Schon, who lives in San Rafael. Schon's neighbors Bob and Sue Moore offered the Mary family their home until November, when they will return from Maine.
Mary worked the phone on the six-day drive west and has already lined up three job interviews this week and schools for their children. He and his wife will spend the rest of the week helping their kids adjust to their new schools.
"We have been really blessed, to have a free place to stay until November," Mary said. "Not everybody has been as fortunate."
His financial picture is still cloudy. A friend got into Mary's New Orleans home and found the stench intolerable. Mary has already paid $20,000 in tuition to a school that his kids will never attend. And while his home lender says he has until January to make his next mortgage payment, that will be a big bill to pay.
"But I don't want shoes or clothes or anything," Mary said. "That's nice, but I don't need them. Right now, I just want a good job to be able to take care of my family."
Watson needs work, too. His family waited out the storm in their home and brought little with them.
"What people may not understand is that you don't have a lot of people with a lot of money in New Orleans," said the 32-year-old Watson, whose parents and grandparents lived in New Orleans. "We didn't have the money to leave."
As the floodwaters rose, Watson's brother helped the family escape in a small wooden rowboat. The family, including their 5-year-old youngest child, walked 4 miles to the city's convention center, where they spent two days huddled on the floor.
"It was hostile there," Watson said. "There was no authority, no police. People kept saying, 'Food is coming. Water is coming.' But when the authorities pulled up, all they pulled out was their guns."
When they heard that the Houston Astrodome was accepting evacuees, the family was among 13 people who piled into a minivan for a ride to Texas.
"But when we got there, they told me that they were only taking people who came in (government-sponsored) buses," Watson said.
Instead of turning around, he contacted a Red Cross representative and said he had relatives in the Bay Area. The Red Cross gave him a voucher for two weeks of housing at a motel and bus fare for the family to come to the Bay Area.
They arrived Saturday, initially staying with Watson's sister in West Oakland. But it was a temporary solution, as she has five children of her own living in two bedrooms. Now, the family is in a motel near Oakland International Airport, hoping to find a place to live and a job for Watson or his wife -- she was a Target clerk -- before the Red Cross voucher runs out.
Like Mary, Watson and his wife will spend the rest of the week trying to get their kids into school. "I've got no cash, nothing," Watson said. "I'll do any kind of work. Same for my wife."
It's too early for either man to process how their lives have been turned inside.
Mary has no intentions of returning to the city where five generations of his family have lived.
"I can't look back to New Orleans with any nostalgia," he said. "I can't wait for New Orleans to get better. I have a wife and two kids to take care of."
Watson, on the other hand, plans to return once the city has healed. He told his children that it might not be the same -- "some kids might be dead, some might be moved somewhere else."
"But we make New Orleans, the people," he said. "If we don't go back, then it isn't New Orleans."
Fox News: Some La. NG returning from Iraq to assist in NO.
The Dead Pelican is a great site.
I just heard on our local news that the evacuees are going to be issued debit cards worth $2000 so they can use the money to purchase transportation and leave the shelters if they want to.
Close to 200 bodies found in Ms so far per Fox News.
The Dead Pelican is a great site.
I just heard on our local news that the evacuees are going to be issued debit cards worth $2000 so they can use the money to purchase transportation and leave the shelters if they want to.
I wonder how many will use it to buy drugs and show up again for more money. Not all will do that and this is a good thing for those wanting out.
Maybe Kip will answer that at 10 AM today. sarc
..."People that came down here to help, officers from other states, the governor will not deputize them".
Unbelievable!
It does my heart good to see someone who actually tells the media like it is.
I just heard on our local news that the evacuees are going to be issued debit cards worth $2000 so they can use the money to purchase transportation and leave the shelters if they want to.
I wonder how many will use it to buy drugs and show up again for more money. Not all will do that and this is a good thing for those wanting out.
Where are they going to go? There aren't any available apartments in this area. Another case of throwing money at a problem and hoping it goes away....
Where are they going to go? There aren't any available apartments in this area. Another case of throwing money at a problem and hoping it goes away....
True in a lot of cases. Some may have family and will use that money to travel there and live with them. Don't know.
WJBO 1150 is fixing to broadcast "The state of the city of BR address"...Wonder how much money he will say he needs?
State of the City (Baton Rouge) is going to be covered live on WJBO....
www.wjbo.com
Ha! You beat me! Great minds.... : )
That Governor must have some "bodies" hidden or something..why in the heck wouldn't she let them help?
Especially since Mayor Nagin wants the NOPD to go off on a Las Vegas VACATION!
I think it's great that they want to help them connect with relatives outside the area but I think that airline/bus vouchers would have been a better idea. I also heard our govenor say that the money would be given to other people in the area who were displaced - not just those in shelters.
why in the heck wouldn't she let them help?
Control, she is so afraid if she lets the feds help, she will lose control of how the money is spent. Or else she is just stupid or both.
Press Releases
Date: 9/7/2005
Contact: Denise Bottcher or Roderick Hawkins at 225-342-9037
Toll-Free Hotline for Displaced State Employees
The Department of State Civil Service has established a toll-free hotline to help the 27,000 plus state employees displaced by Hurricane Katrina to contact their agencies. Displaced state employees may call the hotline at 1-866-783-5462 from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Civil Service will continue to post information pertaining to displaced state employees on its website at www.civilservice.louisiana.gov
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