More Katrina evacuees start over in Libby

Fay Wilson and her sons, Lloyd, 25, and Raphael, 19, pulled into Libby Thursday evening after a four-day road trip from the New Orleans area.

The family is relocating to Libby after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their home.

Wilson, 49, will begin work as a nurse's assistant at the Libby Care Center. Her sons, who were both sheriff's deputies for Orleans Parish in New Orleans, are hoping to get law-enforcement jobs in the Libby area.

Four other hurricane evacuees from New Orleans arrived in Libby two weeks ago.

And the migration continues, with an effort under way to fill 165 nursing-home beds in Northwestern Montana with Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Robin Skaggs, admission coordinator and marketing director for Shoreline Healthcare Management, the company that manages Libby Care Center, has been inventorying vacant nursing-home beds in the region. She also wants to bring in

certified nurses aides to help care for any hurricane-related patients who relocate to the area.

"I'm from Texas, so this hits close to my heart," Skaggs said. "I feel for them so much."

She is working with shelter volunteer Nancy Hedegaard in Gonzales, Texas, the woman responsible for sending the first round of evacuees to Libby. Hedegaard is the mother of Libby resident Jennifer Micklon, who helped bring the first evacuees to Libby.

Skaggs hopes to be able to travel to New Orleans and work with Hedegaard in assessing how many patients could relocate.

"She's gone shelter to shelter," Skaggs said. "I'd go with her, to find displaced CNAs (certified nurses aides) and nursing-home residents."

It was Hedegaard who also connected with Wilson.

"I went to church services in Gonzales and sat next to her [Nancy]," Wilson said in a telephone interview from the Venture Inn in Libby. "We got to talking at Bible study and she said there's space in Libby. I asked her: 'Libby, where is that?' "

As Wilson and her sons traveled north, they'd occasionally ask people if they'd heard of Libby, Montana. No one had.

When she reached Montana and still found people who didn't know where Libby was, she wasn't sure just how remote her new outpost would be.

Any trepidation was short-lived once they reached Libby. Once again, the community rolled out the welcome mat in grand style. Arrangements for an apartment were made, and a local store donated furniture for the apartment.

Trent and Peggy Oelberg, the couple who assisted the first family of evacuees, Diedre and Tony Bernard and their son, Tahj, got the families together Thursday evening so they could get acquainted.

By working through Skaggs, Wilson was able to secure a job.

"We've met a lot of nice people," Wilson said.

She and her sons were among the thousands who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina.

Wilson happened to be outside New Orleans when the devastation struck. She was attending a memorial service for a family member, and when she tried to go back home, she was stopped.

"They wouldn't allow me back in, so I was unable to retrieve anything," she said. "All I had was the funeral clothes I had on."

Her sons evacuated with Wilson's sister. They had the weekend off from their law-enforcement jobs, but were on standby to help out. When they didn't get called for duty, they evacuated.

Raphael's girlfriend, who is pregnant and due to deliver in November, opted to stay with her parents, who wound up in the Atlanta area following the hurricane. She'll eventually join the Wilsons in Libby.

Like so many other displaced New Orleans residents, Wilson expects to eventually make a trip home to see if anything is salvageable from her midtown New Orleans home.

"I have to assume we lost everything," she said.

There are still many items the Wilson family can use as they get established in Libby - sheets, blankets, pots and pans, dishes and clothing. Wilson wears size 18; her sons wear 34 waist/34 inseam pants and large shirts.

Items can be dropped off at the Libby Care Center, 308 East Third St. in Libby. Kalispell-area residents can call the center at 293-6285 to arrange for pick-up.

It's a relief to have the trip behind them, Wilson said, adding, "now I have another journey in front of me."

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com