Replies

Monday, September 05, 2005

St. Tammany residents starting over in Midwest

By PAUL BARTELS
St. Tammany bureau
Almost 50 Slidell and Pearl River area residents made homeless by Hurricane Katrina’s devastation were evacuated over the weekend on two big tour buses with the promise of a new start in the Midwest.

The promise – guaranteed jobs and free apartments for up to six months – was made by Ed Blinn, a Marion, Ind., businessman who owns three used car lots and almost 100 apartments.

Some 47 people who had spent much of the week in five crowded, squalid school gymnasiums took him up on it the offer and boarded one of the buses Blinn hired to journey down the nation’s midsection and back.

They arrived at their new home, temporary or otherwise, late Monday afternoon and Blinn put them all up at a local hotel, he said in a telephone interview.

With his help and that of Red Cross volunteers and social service agencies, the displaced persons are settling into some of his vacant apartments and others – and into their new lives.

So, why did Blinn, 39, safe and sound with his family 900 miles away take it upon himself to embark upon this mission of mercy?

Blinn was aware from the numerous televised news accounts of the devastation and the plight of so many thousands of men, women and children driven from their homes in the New Orleans area.

But he also has a friend in Slidell, Roper Construction Co. owner Jimmy Roper. He’s the uncle of Dr. Mike Roper, a close friend of Blinn’s. For the past few years, the Blinns and Ropers have gone hunting together every year in South Dakota.

“I have a friend in Slidell – so that’s why I decided to go,” he said. “Hell, we’re like family.”

Blinn also was impatient with the slow pace of a hurricane relief effort that city officials and others in the Marion area were talking about to help the stricken area far to the south.

That group met late Friday and spent a lot of time talking without coming to a firm decision on what to do, he said.

“I just felt that with the bureaucracy, it wasn’t going to get done,” he said. “They said their next meeting was Tuesday and I knew I could make it happen, or thought I could and so I did.”

Accompanied by his 14-year-old son, Evan, Blinn hired a driver for each of the two buses capable of holding 30 to 35 passengers. The buses left Marion at about 8 p.m. Saturday and arrived in Slidell at mid-afternoon Sunday.

They then went shelter by shelter to John Slidell Park, three schools the names of which he couldn’t remember and ultimately to Creekside Junior High School near Pearl River.

At each stop, he told those stranded at the sweltering facilities about his proposal and his six-month “guarantee” of jobs and a place to live rent-free and gave them 20 minutes or so to make up their minds.

Not surprisingly, despite their desperate situations, many didn’t want to leave behind what had been their home for many years.

However, travelers ultimately included a family of three that initially wanted to stay, then changed their mind and chased down one of the buses after it began driving off and jumped on, Blinn said.

“I would have liked to stay a little longer and get a few more people,” he said. “I could’ve spent another day.”

But time was running out, the rescue group was informed of an 8 p.m. curfew, “and these people were weary enough” and faced a long drive back to Indiana.

Blinn said he didn’t know how many of his temporary charges eventually would decide to return to Louisiana or stay in their new homes.

“I don’t know if any of them will (want to return),” she said. “But if they do, I’ll help them get back. We’re friends now.”