Displaced by Hurricane Katrina, Jonathan Green makes his way to Lipscomb
|
By Grant Mullins
Babbler Staff Writer
When Jonathan Green went to church to attend Sunday night services a couple of weeks ago, he brought a couple things: a Bible, a two-day supply of food and water and a small radio. Green, 19, started college as a freshman at the University of New Orleans during the last week of August. On bus rides to and from the university the week before the storm hit, Green heard several reports of the ever-intensifying hurricane.
"We thought it was just another storm," Green said. But on Sun, Aug. 28, the mandatory evacuation announcement came from the city's mayor. Green shared a house with his mother, Linda. They had no means to evacuate the city. Many New Orleans residents were bussed to the Superdome, but Green's mother thought the dome would get too hot and crowded. Fortunately, Green's church, Carrolton Avenue Church of Christ, had a balcony. Green and Linda walked thirteen blocks to the church on Sunday night. They slept on the church's pews with seven other members of the congregation, including his friend C.J. and his Uncle Bill.
"I wasn't really scared of the storm. We thought we would go home later on Monday," Green said, "but when the water started coming in, we had to get higher."
Around noon on Monday, the water started coming in through the sides of the church and filling up the area surrounding the pulpit. The small group headed up to the balcony. Along with food and water, Green had also packed his mother's insulin in an ice chest.
When they realized the levies had broken and heard helicopters overhead, some of the group went onto the roof of the church. They held up signs asking for help, including a sign asking for ice to keep Linda's insulin cold. The ice they originally brought melted in the heat of the church. By late Monday afternoon the group started rationing its food and water.
"We didn't know how long we would be up there," said Green.
They slept leaning against the walls of the balcony or on the floor; the balcony had movie theatre seats.
By Tuesday morning the situation had become more desperate. The water was now a foot above the front pews of the church, and rations were running thin. By sheer coincidence, a canoe had been left in the back of the church after a dinner. Two of the group's members walked the canoe through the water and into the back of the church. They took all the communion bread, grape juice, water and paper products they could find into their balcony fortress and hoped for rescue. At midnight on Tuesday, the radio was turned off and a group devotional was held.
"Later, we heard on the radio that it was ok to get food and water from stores," said Green.
On Wednesday morning a decision was made. Green, his friend C.J. and his Uncle Bill decided to trek through the water with the canoe to find food, water and desperately needed ice.
"When we walked out the back of the church the water was chest deep. We all hung on to a side of the canoe and walked toward the grocery store, walking through water that was black and had oil visibly floating in it. But it was at least a break from the water in the church -- that water had to double as our bathroom."
The three were able to find food and water but no ice.
"I didn't want him to go back out there for me," Linda said, "but he's too good of a guy not to."
Despite their mother's protests, Green and C.J. made their way back into the dangerous water. They split up to look for ice, but none was found.
When they returned, the church was empty.
"I was afraid at first, but I knew my mom wouldn't just leave me if help wasn't coming soon," Green said.
As suspected, a rescue boat soon arrived at the church and took Jonathan to dry land where he got into a dump truck with other stranded citizens. The dump truck took them to a rendezvous point at the intersection of I-10 and Causeway. He soon found C.J. who had made it there while looking for ice on his own.
"There were thousands of people there. We were there for two days, just sleeping on the pavement. It was pretty bad. We still didn't have any bathrooms," Green said.
Linda had also been taken to the same place, but they never found each other in the sea of stranded citizens.
"They were really rescuing those people," Linda said, "but it was so hot out there in the elements and on that pavement for two days."
She spent Wednesday night and Thursday on one of the school busses at the rendezvous point. Late Thursday afternoon, the administrators realized she was diabetic and was fast-tracked for evacuation. She was taken by marine helicopter to the New Orleans airport. On Saturday, she and many other refugees were flown from New Orleans to Austin, Texas. They were all taken to the Austin convention center where the Red Cross set up cots, medical care, and hot meals.
"Oh," Linda said slowly as she closed her eyes, "a shower never felt so good. Those people in Austin just treated us like royalty. You would have thought it had happened to them."
Meanwhile Green had made it to the Baton Rouge shelter with C.J. They walked to C.J's uncle's house, which was in the area. The boys called their mothers from C.J.'s uncle's house. Fortunately, the boys' mothers had C.J.'s cell phone. Green and C.J. told their mothers, with a sigh of relief, that they were okay after three days of no communication.
Kirk Garrison, an instructor at Abilene Christian University, learned through an e-mail Linda sent from the Red Cross center, that she was in Austin. Garrison had helped the Carrolton Avenue congregation over the years, so he went to Austin on Tues., Sept. 6 to help Green's mother.
"He told me to pick a place I wanted to go, and his church would pay for mine and Jonathan's tickets. I have a good friend in Nashville, so I wanted to come here," Linda says.
The following day Green's mother was on a plane to Nashville and Green was on a greyhound bus from Baton Rouge to Nashville. Lipscomb's own Dr. Srygley has a daughter who attended the Carrolton Avenue congregation, and she called her parents to ask if someone in the community could house Green and his mother. The Srygleys' neighbor, Betty Brigham, a Lipscomb Alumnus, told the Srygleys she wanted to help. On Thursday, mother and son were reunited in Brigham's living room.
On Friday, Brigham took Green's mother to the Red Cross Center for a hepatitis shot. Her neighbor, Dan Andrews, also a Lipscomb Alumnus, brought Green to the admissions office at Lipscomb to register him for classes.
Green and his mother are starting from scratch. They escaped with only the clothes on their backs.
"I haven't seen my house, but I know it's wet," said Linda. But the small family still considers themselves among the fortunate. In the face of danger, they relied on each other, on their congregation and on God.
"I prayed more in those five days than I ever had in my life" Green said. "God was just on our side."