Softening the blow
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BEAUMONT, Texas — Like a child in sibling rivalry, Hurricane Rita roared across the Gulf of Mexico, as though to outdo her seasonal predecessor, Hurricane Katrina. But weakening and shifting north at the last minute, she mercifully spared greater population centers before making landfall in the early hours of Saturday, Sept. 24.
Over land, Rita's 100-mph blasts dashed homes along the Texas-Louisiana coastal areas and drove a surge of gulf waters that flooded entire communities. The tempest ripped roofs and toppled hundred-year-old oaks in a swath of destruction between Beaumont, Texas, and east to Jennings, La., and continued northward to Nacogdoches, Texas, and Alexandria, La., and surrounding areas.
Despite the considerable damage, Rita's Category 3 impact was less that originally expected. Damage assessments have not been completed for members' homes, but no Church meetinghouses were seriously damaged, and there are no known injuries or deaths among members, though some had homes destroyed and roof damage was widespread. Missionaries evacuated early and took part in relief efforts.
The early warning — Rita was once classed a Category 5 hurricane — prompted residents in the path to become players themselves in the storm drama. They jammed freeways in a frantic exit days before the storm. Some reported spending as much as 26 hours on the freeway between Houston and San Antonio, or 16 hours between Houston and Dallas, and along other exit routes. Few took food or supplies and many did not even know where they would stay.
By contrast, the traumatic experience was softened somewhat for Church members who followed planned evacuations to welcoming sister ward meetinghouses, took with them 72-hour kits, food and blankets. Their home ward leaders kept records of their leaving, and host leaders took records of their arrivals.
LDS Humanitarian Service's emergency response has never worked better, from the source of supplies in Salt Lake City to local volunteers in Houston area. Local bishops' storehouses and Church headquarters shipped emergency supplies before the storm reached landfall, and were saving in their timeliness.
"Everybody was all poised and ready after Hurricane Katrina," said Bennie Lilly of Salt Lake City, area welfare manager. "We were prepared for the worst, and we have learned a lot of things that helped us be better prepared."
He said volunteers from the Houston area who had helped in the response of Hurricane Katrina brought their experience back with them and put it to work in preparation of Hurricane Rita.
A semitrailer load from the LDS Humanitarian Center of nearly 15,000 hygiene kits arrived at the Beaumont Emergency Operations Center at Ford Park in the early afternoon Sunday, Sept. 25, where National Guard, police, and an estimated 600-800 evacuees were staying at the time.
This semitrailer and others were dispatched from Salt Lake City three and four days earlier and waited out the storm in Dallas. Other delivery trucks left from Denver, Colo., Mesa, Ariz., and from Slidell, La.
Hygiene kits are a small part of a well-oiled immediate relief effort that included supplying food for the evacuees and first-responders at the Ford Park center. While delivering the kits, Garry Flake, director of humanitarian emergency response, was asked by the center to help provide food for the thousands who were then at the center. At 1 p.m. Sept. 25, Capt. Dan Ford of the Beaumont Salvation Army, whose kitchen is feeding the men, women and children there, requested food that could be prepared immediately. A semitrailer load of canned goods was delivered to the Salvation Army's kitchen on 7th Street less than six hours later. Plans were also started to help provide clean-up services to first responders.
Since that time, an additional two truckloads of food have been approved for the center, another of hygiene kits and two truckloads of cleaning kits. Two truckloads of food were shipped to the Orange Texas Emergency Operations Center, and a shipment was divided between two food banks in Austin, Texas.
Besides this, 150,000 hygiene kits are going to Sherman, Texas, to the American Red Cross for general distribution.
Elder Jon Huntsman, Area Seventy, member of the board of governors of the American Red Cross, and whose chemical company, Huntsman Corp., has three refineries and is a top employer in the Beaumont area, said that several local leaders had called him to offer thanks for the food and supplies from the Church.
"They have been very grateful to the Church," he said. "They had no idea the Church has such tremendous humanitarian relief. All they can talk about it the wonderful, remarkable efforts of the LDS Church." Wayne Reaud, a prominent Beaumont attorney who is active in civic affairs, described the donations as "God's blessings." Leaders of the Salvation Army "were overwhelmed by the generosity of the Church," he said. "You have done more to help this area than than anyone else." He praised local Judge Carl Griffith, who was a contact for the Church's contributions, for helping the community respond to the disaster.
Elder Stanley G. Ellis, Area Seventy and priesthood coordinator of emergency response to Hurricane Rita, said, "We were blessed to learn from Florida and be three weeks after Hurricane Katrina, and we were able to benefit from the experience of all the others. The level of preparation was extremely high."
He described the "wonder of the Lord's plan that as each individual group pled for help and guidance, the Lord was able to inspire each stake, ward, family and individual on what they specifically needed to do to prepare."
To coordinate services, he conducted frequent bridge telephone calls between leaders and stake presidents.
He thanked the team from Church headquarters that included Marvin Van Dam, area director of temporal affairs; Bennie Lilly, area welfare manager; Garry Flake; Kevin Nield, director of bishops' storehouse services; Richard Humphreys, manager of storehouse services; Nate Leishman, emergency response manager; and John B. Larsen, regional welfare specialist.
The experience was a difficult one for evacuees and host wards. Evacuees drove north, not knowing if their lives' possessions would survive, stayed in meetinghouses that lost power during the hurricane and tornado watch, and remained in a distant location without knowing the outcome of their homes for several days.
President Eric Petersen of the Beaumont Texas Stake, who faces four to six weeks of power outage in Beaumont and Port Arthur wards, said his stake began preparing some eight months ago.
"I told them, 'This is not prophetic. I am not saying something's going to happen. I just feel like we need to be prepared.' "
The stake prepared for hurricane-type disasters by developing an evacuation plan complete with each family's plans and contact phone numbers, and inventorying generators and chain saws.
Their stake's participation began the first of September when evacuees from Hurricane Katrina were brought to the Beaumont shelter without beds or bedding. The expected number of 60 evacuees jumped to 860. Supporting the city, Beaumont stake members gathered a truckload of emergency supplies and called Salt Lake City, which sent cots and bedding from a supply in Houston that arrived a few hours later.
The cots were part of a strategic supply laid up in planning by the Church's emergency response system, said Brother Flake.
The Beaumont stake also housed National Guardsmen in a Beaumont meetinghouse, and provided meals by sisters in the Relief Society. The stake was invited to join the city's emergency response council, where it is known as "the church."
Then came Hurricane Rita. "You never know if you are going to be a giver or a receiver," someone observed.
"I'd rather give than receive," said President Petersen, but "we've experienced every part of it." When Rita poised toward Beaumont, wards traveled to sister wards in Longview Texas Stake as prearranged, and the Alexandria stake, which had housed Katrina evacuees, opened its doors again, despite the fact that it was in the hurricane corridor.
President Johnny W. Ross of the Orange Texas Stake, which took the "wet side" or warmer eastern air side of the hurricane, said that when the warning was issued, a stake welfare council was called and preparations that had been made were reviewed.
At first, the evacuation notice was optional when it appeared the hurricane would be to the south. But when "we realized it was heading north, the call went out to evacuate," he said. About 95 percent of the members evacuated.
Bishop Steven Baxter of the Lake Charles Ward had an 800 telephone number that members called and reported their plans.
A site at Leesville was used for staging the evacuation. President Ross praised the stake presidents and bishops in Alexandria, Longview and Shreveport for their willingness to house the evacuees.
One of these was Bishop R. LaRell Nielson of the Nacogdoches 1st Ward, Longview Texas Stake. He said the experience was a difficult one. During that time, the ward had up to 165 people in a building with no electricity — no air conditioning — and record heat and high humidity. Some family "rooms" in the Primary room or cultural hall were defined only by chalk lines.
"It was not a very pleasant place to be," he said.
"I was at the Church from last Wednesday (Sept. 21) until I left the Church today (Sept. 27) at 9:30 a.m.," said Bishop Nielson. At that time, only about 30 evacuees remained in the meetinghouse.
Ward members also filled four-hour shifts, including those of security and medical back-up, around the clock. "How proud I was of my ward. They worked very, very hard," said Bishop Nielson.
He said that in hosting the evacuees, the welfare committee met frequently and made decisions. One of those was that preparation of food by individual families wasn't working, so ward Relief Society sisters under the direction of Marsha Ault, president, cooked two hot meals a day for the group. At first, they went to the bishops' storehouse and brought food back, then a delivery was made at about 6:30 a.m. Saturday. "We really appreciated that," Bishop Nielson said. "We really needed it."
As each family arrived, each person's information was recorded on a separate sheet of paper that included cell phone numbers. When the meetinghouse received phone calls of inquiry about a family, their cell phone number was given so they could direct the call immediately. Each family's name was hung on the room where they stayed so others could find them immediately. In the evening, a meeting was held during which problems were discussed and resolved.
He said that everybody serving at the meetinghouse deserved a lot of credit, including the evacuees, who "behaved in a very good manner."
He suggested that a more workable number of evacuees to a building is 50-70.
Paul H. Risk, the high councilor who coordinated the effort, said some 450 evacuees, including some 50 who are not Church members who had nowhere to go, stayed in five buildings of the Longview stake.
"A large percentage (of members) showed up with food. (Some) showed up with giant cans of peanut butter and jelly, so we bought the store out of bread and had snacks."
He said they kept in contact with leaders of local members and evacuees.
When the power went down, they bought 40 flashlights and later hung glow sticks in the halls and rest rooms.
"People cooperated in a tremendous way," he said. "When they were assigned to clean, they went at it like a bunch of bees."
A local columnist, Brother Risk wrote of the experience: "In my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as many other denominations, we believe that this time of mortality is a proving ground for eternal life and exaltation. . . . . From an eternal perspective rough times, even those named Rita or Katrina, are just little glitches along the way."
E-mail to: jhart@desnews.com
