Longmont – A tired caravan of Hurricane Katrina’s victims rolled into the city at dusk Wednesday, drawn by the promise of food and shelter.
But before giving those things to the weary travelers, Lester Thorne and wife Sheryl held a teary-eyed reunion with his grandparents and parents, sisters and brothers in front of their small restaurant in a strip mall on Longmont’s Francis Street.
“I’m so stunned I can’t believe it,” said 32-year-old Lance Thorne, Lester’s brother. “Back home, they’re looting my house, and then here we get this reception.”
Eighteen of Lester Thorne’s relatives arrived in three sedans and two minivans after leaving New Orleans on Saturday. They drove to Jasper, Texas, and stayed two nights before moving on to Wichita and then Longmont.
Passengers ranged in age from 11 months to 82 years old. Stopping was infrequent, said Nicole Doubleday, Thorne’s cousin.
“Money is tight, and we tried to save as much as we could,” she said.
Each relative told the same story: Their homes are probably under water and their livelihoods almost surely lost after Katrina swept through New Orleans this week.
“My house has water up to its roof, and I don’t have a job,” said Doubleday, who works as a waitress.
“It’s really like a Third World country now,” said Randy Carroll, Thorne’s uncle. His Louisiana parish is under virtual martial law, and he might be allowed back within a month to briefly retrieve some belongings.
But life as he and other residents have known it is no longer.
“We literally could be looking at six months to a year, maybe more, before we can go back home,” Carroll said. “The whole city will have to be reconstructed.”
Carroll and roughly half of Thorne’s family will be living with Thorne’s aunt and uncle in Pinewood Springs, a small mountain community west of Longmont.
The rest will stay with Thorne, his wife and two children in their 1,700-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in the city.
Help is arriving with donations and offers to put up the family for free from homeowners and local motels.
“I can’t believe the response from people,” said Thorne, who lived in New Orleans for 30 years before he took over the Loaf & Ladle restaurant four years ago.
Despite the hardships, Thorne and his wife never hesitated to offer to put a roof over his relatives’ heads.
“They really don’t have anything to go back to,” he said. “Even if their houses are not gone, they don’t have anything left for them.
“There’s no food, no jobs, nothing for them.”
The airport where Lance Thorne works is heavily damaged, and the nursing school where his wife attends classes is under 8 feet of water.
“Everything I knew is gone now,” Lance Thorne said. He then pointed to his brother. “But he’s somebody you can count on.”
The Thorne family requests that donations be forwarded to Brent Nunnally, A.G. Edwards, 1707 N. Main St., Longmont, CO 80501, 303-651-0100, or Lifebridge Christian Church, 10345 Ute Highway, Longmont, CO 80504, 303-776-2927.
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
