Katrina ripples felt by Flathead mom

Julie Adkins, a certified public accountant in Kalispell, confronted a grizzly bear with cubs and a Katrina storm surge of motherly concern inside of 24 hours.

Adkins and her husband, Fred, were hiking in Many Glacier when Katrina blew up from a tropical storm into a holy terror. "We didn't know anything about the storm," she said.

Her son Mark Rabin, his wife, Dorian, and their 5-month-old baby lived in the mid-city area of New Orleans. The couple had lived in the Flathead Valley from 1999 to 2002.

Local newspaper readers may remember Rabin from a front-page story about a grizzly cub he found wandering near the couple's little cabin on Whitefish Lake.

He also became known for playing guitar often at open-microphone night at the Great Northern Bar.

While living in the Flathead, Rabin worked as a trainer at Stream and started a Web page design business called Websnare.com, which he still operates.

Dorian, a gourmet chef, worked at several fine-dining establishments in the Flathead. Until the storm, the new mother was working part time as a private chef for families in New Orleans.

Because of their hiking trip to Glacier National Park, Adkins and her husband had no idea the killer storm was roaring toward their son's hometown.

They also had no idea that a grizzly mother with two cubs was waiting around the corner on the trail. Suddenly, they came upon the trio just 15 feet away.

"There were six grizzly eyes staring at us," Adkins said. "We were all shook up."

The couple quickly diverted their path above the trail. The bear didn't charge.

"I stood behind a tree, shaking," she said.

The couple made it back to their car in one piece. Adkins said they were "all involved in what they had just been through" when they heard about the hurricane.

She learned later that Dorian and the baby had left the city Aug. 27 to stay with a friend in Pensacola, Fla.

"He wasn't going to leave," Adkins said about her son.

Fortunately, Rabin decided to heed the evacuation warnings Aug. 28, the day before Katrina made landfall. His father, a physician in New Orleans, lent Rabin his car to drive to Pensacola to stay with his wife.

"It took him about 12 hours to drive," she said. "Usually, it's four and a half to five hours."

After 10 days in Pensacola, the couple moved to another friend's house in Tennessee. From there, Rabin drove back to New Orleans this past weekend to inspect their town and home.

"It was a pretty grisly scene," Adkins said.

Rabin saw dead people and dogs floating as he made his way home. But he found his home with less damage than he expected.

"They've got water but not as much as some people," she said. "We thought it was completely under water."

Adkins said it's frustrating to try to have a conversation with her son with all the cell-tower damage from the storm.

"I can only hear about every fourth word," she said.

Adkins struggled to help her son figure out what to do in the face of so many unknowns. She described him at his wits' end in his first phone calls.

"They're in limbo," Adkins said. "They don't know where to live; they don't know what to do."

The couple registered online for FEMA assistance. In the latest call to Adkins, her son was going back to New Orleans.

"He thinks he has a job as a FEMA inspector," she said.

Adkins' other son, Brian Rabin, was heavily involved in the Katrina catastrophe as a physician performing his residency in Baton Rouge. He helped evacuate patients after the storm.

She didn't learn many details of his experience.

"He said if he told me what he saw, he'd start crying," she said. "People were dying on buses."

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com