Evacuees start new life in Libby

Diedre Jefferson remembers the knot in her stomach when the bus door closed and she headed out of New Orleans with her 3-year-old son.

Rescuers were taking only women and children that day - four days after Hurricane Katrina hit - as they made their way through the crowd of evacuees waiting on an interstate highway. Jefferson didn't know when or where she'd see Tony Bernard (her fiance and her son's father) again.

She was plenty worried about him, but had to deal with her own problems. For four days she'd been without insulin to keep her diabetes in check, and her young son, Tahj, who has cerebral palsy, also was feeling the effects of the storm that had turned their lives upside down.

Two days after Jefferson and her son were taken to the Lamar-Dixon shelter in Gonzales, La., Bernard was rescued and taken to a shelter in San Antonio, Texas.

With communications at a standstill, the couple remained separated, with no idea of where to begin looking for one another.

Volunteers and a little divine intervention brought the couple back together in Kalispell.

The family was reunited Friday afternoon at Glacier Park International Airport.

Now they are starting their lives over in Libby, buoyed by the faith and compassion of a circle of new friends who have opened their homes and hearts to the homeless family.

A fourth evacuee, Paul Barbarin, also is relocating to Libby (see related story).

"With the grace of God and help from Miss Nancy we're here," Jefferson said with a broad smile after she'd embraced Bernard.

Miss Nancy is Nancy Hedegaard, the mother of Libby resident Jennifer Micklon. The story of how the four New Orleans residents relocated to Libby begins with her.

HEDEGAARD was working at the Lamar-Dixon shelter where the Jeffersons and Barbarin were staying. Micklon, wanting to help hurricane victims in some way, called her mother and asked for names of people who had been left homeless by the storm.

"Miss Nancy saw me. I was carrying Tahj and I was so tired," Jefferson recalled. "Miss Nancy then got me a big old buggy for Tahj and she asked me if I wanted to go to Montana. I asked her, 'Where's Montana?' She told me it was way up north, next to the border with Canada and I thought, 'Oh my goodness.'"

It sounded inviting, but Jefferson wouldn't consider going to Montana without Bernard. Volunteers at the shelter helped her locate Bernard by searching Internet lists of hurricane evacuees. When she finally contacted him, he told her: "Wherever you and the baby go, I'm going."

Trent Oelberg, a retired pastor in Libby, and his wife, Peggy, also were wanting to find a way to help hurricane victims.

"Peggy and I kept watching the news and over days of much prayer it happened," Trent Oelberg said.

They came upon Micklon's booth at the recent Nordicfest in Libby and learned she was recruiting people who might open their homes to hurricane victims.

"God's always told us to share our house," Peggy Oelberg said. "We feel this is really what God wants."

Area communities have already opened their arms to Libby's newest residents. The Amish community near Eureka delivered food and has a van the family can use, and everywhere, there's generosity, she said.

The Oelbergs will provide their finished basement as a new home for the Jeffersons and Bernard once they're married next week. Until then, Diedre and Tahj will stay with them, and Bernard will stay with the Micklons, where Barbarin, a disabled Vietnam-era veteran, is making his new home.

"We want to do it right, so we'll get married as soon as we can," Jefferson said.

THE WRATH of Hurricane Katrina and a harrowing escape from their home has changed them, the survivors confided. Bernard noticed a difference in his fiancee, who didn't have a religious upbringing but now has newfound faith.

"I got my first Bible from the lady in Gonzales" at the shelter, Jefferson said. "All I can say is that we are so blessed."

The day that would change their lives started out nervously, and eventually the couple and their disabled son had only minutes to scramble to their attic when the levee two blocks from their home broke.

"I was anxious because I knew the storm was coming," Jefferson said.

She had gone about her daily routine, fixing breakfast and keeping a watch on the weather outside.

Then the water began rising.

First she visually measured it up to the tires on vehicles outside. Within a few minutes it was at the top of the neighbor's doorstep … then up to the hood of the cars…

"I can't swim and I'm afraid of heights, but Tony said we had to get to higher ground. I was in disbelief," she said.

The water came through the back door of their home as they scrambled to the top bunk bed. Fifteen minutes later the bottom bunk mattress floated away. Their closet stood a little higher than the bunk beds, so Jefferson hoisted Tahj and herself up there.

And the water kept coming.

Next, they climbed the ladder to the attic and spent the day there.

"We laid there listening to the wind and the rain, and then I heard voices," she said. "Tony knocked out a vent and peeked his head out."

All he could see was water - everywhere.

Bernard estimated the water rose about 7 feet in 45 minutes.

Rescuers in a boat saw Bernard's hand sticking out of the roof and took them to a school, an unofficial shelter. There was no water and no medicine for Jefferson, but they got by with a little juice and milk from the school cafeteria.

"Then people started doing inhumane things," Jefferson said.

As conditions worsened and chaos ensued, they knew they had to leave the shelter. Bernard found a public transit bus and drove a group of evacuees through the flooding streets as far west as they could go. The engine kept stalling, but the group made it to the Interstate where other travelers were stranded.

"We just did what we had to do," Jefferson said. "We didn't have time to think about fears. All we had was the clothes on our back."

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