Area welcomes coastal evacuees

MUSCLE SHOALS - Cathy and Joseph Hampton believe in the power of prayer. They believe in it so much, in fact, that they even considered their 21-hour bus excursion from New Orleans East a blessing.

"We prayed over our home before we left, asking God for minimal damage, but mainly that we'd be safe on our journey," Hampton said, adding that God answered their prayer by delivering them safely to their evacuation destination Monday morning at Northwest-Shoals Community College in Muscle Shoals.

The college's Phil Campbell campus housed about 150 evacuees, mostly from New Orleans and nearby parishes, while the Muscle Shoals campus is temporarily providing shelter by way of cots, food and drinks for another 300 people, ranging from infants to seniors.

While Hurricane Gustav has dominated weather reports for nearly a week, it was on the minds of those taking shelter in the Shoals Monday as well.

At Northwest-Shoals, large television screens kept people abreast of the hurricane, which was downgraded to a category 1 storm by mid-afternoon.

"I don't expect this one to be anything like as devastating as Hurricane Katrina," Cathy Hampton said. "Even the evacuation this time was much smoother and much better planned."

The Hamptons, along with their two young children, James and Joy, all had identification bracelets, issued before they loaded the bus.

"This time, every family was together. They made sure of that," she said. "I think local government as well as state and federal officials learned from Katrina and will handle this much better. We still have to wait and see what Hurricane Hanna is going to do, also."

Weather forecasters say Hanna, which was raging in the Atlantic near the Bahamas on Monday, could make landfall in parts of Georgia and South Carolina later in the week.

As for the Hamptons, they're taking one storm at a time and for now, they're just thankful to be safe and healthy.

"We each brought with us a small bag, but before we left we stored all our personal effects up high in our home, hopefully where water can't reach it if there's flooding," she said.

For Cathy Hampton, it's the third hurricane she has escaped since 1992, beginning with Hurricane Andrew, that did the heaviest damage to southern Florida.

It was Katrina that destroyed her home three years ago and all her family's belongings. With family members urging them to move from New Orleans, Cathy said her love for New Orleans won't allow it.

"I don't want to live anywhere else," she said. "Disaster can happen anywhere you live. We just happen to live near the water. We'll deal with whatever happens as a result of this hurricane, but I really expect to fare much better than last time. I learned then that stuff is just stuff, nothing more.

"If you have your family and your health you have it all. Everything else can be replaced."

Another evacuee, Bernell Stewart, of New Orleans, Ninth Ward, said he loaded up friends in his automobile and drove to where the bus was loading, not knowing for sure where he was going. He said there isn't time for questions during a mandatory evacuation.

"I didn't really even board up my windows," Stewart said. "I can't imagine it being as bad as Katrina, where I lost it all. That time, I evacuated to San Antonio and was out there for a year. I only came back to New Orleans two years ago and now this."

Northwest-Shoals Community College President Humphrey Lee said the plans for housing evacuees went smoothly, with many college and Red Cross volunteers working all night to get ready for the influx of people.

"After Katrina, the two-year college system got together and established plans for providing shelter in a situation like this," Lee said. "We just could have never known when we were planning that it would happen again three years later."

Tom Almon, with the American Red Cross, was on site all day Monday and said everything had run smoothly and orderly.

As of Monday, officials did not know how long the evacuees would be there.

Area hotels were also at or near capacity Monday with people fleeing the storms. Nearly 2,000 displaced people occupied rooms in Lauderdale and Colbert county hotels.

Lisa Singleton-Rickman can be reached at 740-5735 or lisa.singleton-rickman@TimesDaily.com.