Hurricane Katrina blew Philantha “Tay” Gary and Walker Lasiter to Colorado.
Gary, from Biloxi, Miss., and Lasiter, from New Orleans, left behind most of their belongings and got $4,000 in stipends from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
But if Katrina was an ill wind for Gary, it was a fortunate turn for Lasiter.
Gary, 26, and her three children struggled to get by in Aurora, using federal aid to buy food, clothing and cigarettes while she searched for a job.
Katrina was “the worst thing that ever happened to me,” Gary said.
Meanwhile, 38-year-old Lasiter used his federal stipend to pay a few bills and trade up his Jeep for a used Land Cruiser.
He landed a job in a Beaver Creek resort and spent the winter skiing.
“It was almost like the hurricane gave me a ticket to try new things in life,” Lasiter said. “As if it was the best thing that could happen to me.”
Stranger in strange land
The Garys’ lives went smoothly at first after being relocated to Colorado. Then the owner of the home they rented got into trouble.
In December, three months after Katrina, the federal government moved Gary and her children – Kevin, 10, Tyla, 6, and Ashanti, 4 – to Denver.
Water damage and condemnation gobbled most everything she had, though Gary said she salvaged a few items, including a prized deep fryer.
“Great chicken,” said the former junior high school cook. “I was living a decent life and that got destroyed.”
Gary admitted she was nervous about being a stranger in a strange place – with cold winters and snow.
“But hurricanes don’t come here,” she said. Things went smoothly at first.
The government paid for the Garys’ plane tickets; a local charity group in Denver helped her find a house; the government paid the rent and utilities; the kids were enrolled in school just down the street.
The family was given new furnishings to replace the water-soaked ones left on a Biloxi trash pile.
The children got trash bags stuffed with toys.
“It’s nice here, but I’m still not used to all the Spanish,” she said. “It’s very different.”
Jobs were hard to find and didn’t pay much – especially with Denver’s higher day care costs.
Then on April 14, the water department arrived to shut the supply for nonpayment.
The next day, someone taped a foreclosure notice to the front door of the $1,400-a-month house the government had been renting for the family.
Despite the payments, the landowner was delinquent on the mortgage and water bill.
Gary was worried; she didn’t have enough money to move.
At first, she planned a yard sale – but “not the deep fryer,” she resolved – to raise money for a move back to Biloxi, then changed her mind.
“I’m not able to go back home yet, not without my belongings,” Gary said. “We came here with nearly nothing; I don’t want us to leave the same way.”
Following weeks of anxiety, Gary learned that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had transferred to Aurora the housing vouchers she relied on in Biloxi.
The family moved into a different house not far from the other, and Gary is back interviewing for a job. Aurora is her home – for now.
“I have no place else to go,” she said.
“My way of life was gone”
Attorney Walker Lasiter found refuge at a Colorado ski resort, but after the season ended, he went back to the Big Easy to start over.
Meanwhile, Walker Lasiter couldn’t believe his luck.
The one-time lawyer for nonprofit organizations escaped New Orleans in his late-model Jeep just before the levees broke.
He headed to a friend’s home in Georgia.
“My house was not really damaged, but the disaster caused me to lose my job, and all the electricity was gone,” he said. “I couldn’t very well live there.”
On his own, Lasiter made his way into the Rocky Mountains.
“My way of life was gone,” he said.
A former school chum living in Colorado told Lasiter about job openings in the hospitality sector of the ski industry. Many jobs included a lift pass.
“I made a split decision to experience something different,” Lasiter said.
He landed a job working the front desk at St. James Place, a tony condominium resort at Beaver Creek.
Lasiter lived with Beaver Creek’s other seasonal employees at inexpensive apartment housing in Avon.
“I was getting a pretty good deal, but I won’t ever forget the smell of dirty socks and marijuana,” he said.
The free ski pass made it tolerable, Lasiter said, especially since an evening shift afforded him plenty of daytime skiing.
“I didn’t have enough money at first, but after two paychecks I was able to buy skis,” he said.
Lasiter said he skied about 65 days.
“It was a beautiful place to ski and live,” he said.
When the season ended, Lasiter returned to New Orleans to find work, to help rebuild and, hopefully, stay. The house he had lived in survived without damage, but the rent had soared.
It was a “bleak picture” Lasiter said, and he considered returning to Colorado.
But by the end of May, things were looking up. A call-back interview at a prestigious art museum lay ahead.
“I was definitely one of the lucky ones even though I lost my way of life,” he said. “I’m just glad I can come back and start over.”
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at dmigoya@denverpost.com or 303-820-1506.
Counseling available for evacuees in Colo.
Although there are no hurricanes in Colorado, its severe spring weather might rattle Katrina and Rita evacuees who settle here.
The Colorado Hurricane Support and Recovery Project is offering counseling to hurricane survivors who might experience heightened stress and anxiety with the coming storm season.
“It’s not only the start of hurricane season that may trigger heightened stress, but it’s also the time of year in Colorado when we experience more severe weather patterns,” said Dr. Curt Drennen, the state’s disaster mental-health coordinator.
The program is funded by a $1.7 million federal grant for individual and group counseling. State officials estimate there are about 10,000 evacuees still in Colorado.
There are four regional support teams that people can call for help: Aurora and the Front Range at 303-856-2934; Pikes Peak region at 719-314-0740; Spanish Peaks region at 719-252-8010; and Lutheran Family Services for the Western Slope at 970-799-2328 north of Telluride or 970-778-2610 south of Telluride.
