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12/18/06 - Finding Comfort, Aid in D.C. Holiday Gathering
By Dan Morse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 18, 2005; C03
Christmas is approaching for Katrina evacuees, a holiday hardly lost on Angie M. LeBeau, who is 46, living alone and trying to start her life again in Landover.
I get lonely, she said. I love talking to people.
So yesterday, she went to Northeast Washington for a holiday party sponsored by a group called LIFT (Louisiana Initiative for Tomorrow) New Orleans. LeBeau was joined by 170 other evacuees. Kids came for the free toys and winter coats. Parents received $100 and $50 gift certificates.
Many had horrible stories to tell, of barely making it out, of relatives and friends they still haven't heard from.
Others worry about being evicted from their current apartments. Like LeBeau, a one-time counselor at a psychiatric hospital in New Orleans, many evacuees feel a sense of isolation.
People are certainly lonely. That's probably one of the number one issues they're having, said Chonya Davis-Johnson, of Laurel, who helped organize the holiday party.
Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, 16 of Davis-Johnson's relatives from New Orleans stayed at the townhouse that she, her husband and young daughter share.
Many people fled New Orleans with family members. Some of those groups have broken up -- many have traveled elsewhere or found their own places.
Davis-Johnson works with a large number of evacuees. For many, there seems to be a sense of 'We're being lost in the shuffle,' she said.
Yesterday's event was a break from that. The evacuees heard from relief groups and from their congressman, Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.). They ate Popeyes chicken, a New Orleans staple, and listened to Zydeco music played by a DJ.
Davis-Johnson's relatives from New Orleans, who've found new homes in the area, also attended the party.
It's like a family gathering, said one of her nieces, Artesha Davis, 12. She sat next to her aunt Rose, who now lives in Silver Spring. Artesha played with Rose's two young children, Diamond and Daymond, and she picked up the board game Clue.
Rodney Weston, 13, a member of another family of evacuees living in Alexandria, said he has mixed emotions about Virginia. It's safer, compared to the gunshots he heard nightly in New Orleans. But he misses his friends. He and his family spent 10 days in New Orleans trying to survive after Katrina. They camped in an abandoned building. His father, Adolph, cooked noodles for them over a fire in a trash can. He said he saw three or four dead bodies.
It was crazy down there, he said. I want to go back, but I don't.
LeBeau spent much of the time mixing and mingling. She said she suffers from anxiety and claustrophobia but is reluctant to take medication. She is a recovering alcoholic and drug user and is approaching her 17th year of sobriety, she said.
She evacuated New Orleans just ahead of the storm, with only a weekend's worth of clothing. She traveled with a caravan of family members to Georgia, hoping to return after the storm. But Katrina flooded her house with nine feet of water, ruining her most precious possession: photographs of her three daughters, three grandchildren, mother and other family members.
In Christmases past, family members came to her house in New Orleans. Looking through those old photos was always a big part of the holidays. I'm not going to have that this year, she said.
Her minivan broke down in Georgia. LeBeau and other family members ultimately made their way to Maryland. Eight days after the storm, she still hadn't heard from one of her sister. LeBeau lost 25 pounds from the stress. She eventually learned her sister was safe in Texas. Two of LeBeau's daughters and their children left Maryland seeking other family members and lower rent payments. LeBeau was hoping they could stay with her, but a free apartment arranged by a nonprofit group didn't work out, she said.
In recent weeks, she applied for a job, working the front desk for Landover dentist Wilfred Charles. The office manager there, Patsy Brooks, said she got raving references about LeBeau from her supervisors at River Oaks Hospital in New Orleans.
LeBeau got the job. On Saturday morning, she joked with people as they came in, telling a man scheduled to get his tooth pulled: I'm feeling for you.
The night before, she ventured out to a Bingo game in Northern Virginia. It was fun. It made me know I can still keep up, she said.
She's started to ride the Metro, testing how she can overcome her claustrophobia in the tunnels. If she can master the Orange Line, she said, she intends to get a counseling job at a local hospital. That's one of the goals she's written down for 2006.
During the party yesterday, LeBeau said she went outside once to get away from the enclosed space. When anxiety attacks creep up, she tries to take deep breaths, drink something cold or go somewhere cooler.
I made some friends, she said. I did okay today.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
