Aurora – The first evacuees of Hurricane Katrina arrived in the Denver area Sunday, some looking for a safe place to sleep, others hoping for a new life.
Each person carried little more than donated clothing and stories of horror.
Veronica Apav recalled huddling with her five children on an Interstate 10 overpass for three nights, trying to shield them from looters and violent drug addicts.
“I got to the point where I thought, ‘Why not jump over the bridge?”‘ she said, adding that thoughts of her kids stopped her.
Jacques Garnett, 38, still doesn’t know what happened to his mother. But after spending the better part of his life in New Orleans, he has no interest in returning.
Last week is such a blur to him that he can’t recall how many nights he spent trapped by floods on the third floor of a building and how many were spent on the highway. He just knows his future is in a city a mile above sea level.
“There was no way I can go back there,” he said. “So why not Denver.”
Officials are expecting as many as 1,000 people from the Gulf Coast to take shelter in Colorado as part of Operation Safe Haven. Sunday, about 125 flew into Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora on a commercial jet before being taken to dorms at the Community College of Denver on the former Lowry Air Force Base. More are expected today.
Some who arrived Sunday also brought their pets, and they were welcomed, too.
As they checked in, each evacuee received a medical screening and items that before they were desperate for water and food, they might have considered necessities: soap, a toothbrush, working phones.
“We’re getting what we need,” said an exhausted Edward Augustine. He was trapped by high water for days after the storm. He is still looking for his 12- and 16-year-old children.
Authorities set up housing for survivors in dorms near the campus. They had enough beds for about 600 people but planned to up that to about 1,000. Aurora spokeswoman Gabrielle Johnson said officials are coordinating with local hotels in case of overflow.
“Right now we are just trying to give these people some degree of normalcy,” city spokeswoman Kim Stuart said. “We’re trying to connect families as best we can.”
As survivors arrived, the community responded. Authorities estimated that about 600 residents came to volunteer. Another 200 officers from various agencies were on hand.
Authorities said the Red Cross is asking people to donate cash rather than items.
“We’ve come out here to welcome these people to our city,” said Bob Logan, 48, of Mount Gilead Baptist Church. “It affects us all. Just because we are a mile high doesn’t mean next week we could not be without an address.”
For many, the hospitality was a far cry from the desperation they witnessed for a week.
Apav said she had gone looking for food and water in New Orleans. Rather than loot, she asked police officers if she could take essentials for her family. They gave her a choice, she said: “Get shot or go back.”
Cash Smith, 24, was sleeping on concrete in the Superdome a few nights ago. He got there by floating his children in trash cans. But he counts his blessings that he got an offer to fly his family from the Astrodome in Houston to Denver. It was part of an effort by Frontier Airlines and local hotels to relocate evacuees.
“We’ve been treated like kings and queens,” Smith said.
He, like Garnett, came to Denver looking to start over.
But many survivors haven’t recovered from the anxiety of being stranded. Lionell Daggs, 57, and Betty Daggs, 60, watched for two days from a rooftop while helicopters flew past them.
“That’s what hurt the most,” Lionell Daggs said. “No one would stop for us.”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 720-929-0893 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
