“The Big Easy braces for the Big One,” was the headline that spanned all six columns at the top of the front page of the El Dorado News-Times on Aug. 29, 2005. Little did anyone know just how devastating Katrina would be.
During the days and weeks after the category 5 hurricane slammed the Gulf Coast local and area residents, churches and businesses opened their homes and their wallets and gave of their time to help those displaced by the massive hurricane. At the final toll, more than 1,800 people had died in the hurricane and subsequent flooding along the Gulf Coast from central Florida to Texas and all states in between.
A day before Katrina hit the U.S., all lanes of I-55 near Brookhaven, Miss., were open to northbound traffic as residents on the coast fled inland in attempts to avoid the storm’s wrath.
On Aug. 29, Katrina’s storm surge caused 53 different levee breaches in greater New Orleans, submerging 80 percent of the city. A report by the American Society of Civil Engineers indicated that two-thirds of the flooding in New Orleans was caused by the multiple failures of the city’s floodwalls.
Residents from along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama began traveling north and many found food, water, a place to stay and other necessities in El Dorado. One man from Baton Rouge was photographed as he loaded up cans of gasoline into the back of his truck in preparation to go home. He had also purchased a generator after hearing reports that many areas near his home had no gasoline or electrical service.
For about two weeks, on the front page of the News-Times, a “Hurricane Help,” box appeared to let hurricane victims know where they could get free services, food and lodging.
On Sept. 1, 2005, “Hurricane Help,” read, in part, “Businesses, churches, agencies and community organizations in El Dorado have stepped up to provide free services and assistance to refugees displaced by Hurricane Katrina, including communication with South Louisiana and Mississippi.”
The Union County Sheriff’s Office appointed chief deputies to serve as special liaisons to help hurricane evacuees in Union County find their loved ones and contact numbers and addresses were listed.
Employees of the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce volunteered to set up an information clearinghouse for evacuees staying in the community and maintained updated information on lodging, short-term rental properties and discounts offered by local establishments.
In El Dorado, evacuees were told where to obtain free shelter – at West Side Baptist Church gymnasium, Salvation Army and the Junction City Community Center. The shelter set up in Junction City was soon filled to capacity as evacuees searched for a place to stay and on Aug. 30, officials there were directing Katrina evacuees to shelters further north.
At the Boy Scout Camp DeSoto, free minimal accommodations for evacuees were made available, including air-conditioned cabins and tent-style quarters. “Laundry, restroom and shower facilities are available on-site. Activities such as fishing, swimming, canoeing and movie nights will take place over the Labor Day weekend. Select meals will be provided during Labor Day weekend on a first-come, first-serve basis.”
Pilgrim’s Pride employees grilled chicken dinners one day for persons displaced by Hurricane Katrina who were staying in local hotels and evacuation centers. Officials with Pilgrim’s Pride also contacted local hotels to determine the number of people interested in receiving a free barbecue dinner.
Free tetanus-diphtheria shots for evacuees and emergency workers were available at the Union County Health Unit and in response “to the Hurricane Katrina crisis, Save the Ouachita, Inc. canceled its membership and fundraising drive originally scheduled to be held in West Monroe, La.” Instead, STO members delivered $1,500 worth of locally donated supplies to the American Red Cross in Monroe, for hurricane evacuees.
Warm showers were offered at HealthWorks Fitness Center and local musicians banded together to help provide relief for evacuees of Hurricane Katrina. A concert on the square in El Dorado was held to collect monetary donations for disaster victims.
In their words: Remembrances
My memory of Katrina centers around the fact that College Avenue Church of Christ was a place where the refugees were sheltered. Our Family Center was set up with cots, and the kitchen served meals for them for two or three weeks. There were kids who needed toys to play with, and the announcement was made to this need. At that time my Mother was a resident of Oak Ridge Nursing Home, when I told her about it she said told me to take her stuffed animals to the kids. Over the years people at given her a lot of stuffed animals. It was her way of helping out.
—James Willis, Strong
We lived 50 miles from downtown New Orleans, just north of Covington, La. There were lots of obstacles to overcome, but the memory that stands out the most is how our community, “Lee Road,” helped each other. No one waited for the parish or state officials (who very busy), neighbors pitched in and got things done. It would be very hard to truly express feelings of living through the effects of Katrina in one paragraph.
—Holly Bauman, Smackover
When Katrina hit I was working for Universal Hospital Services in Little Rock. We were a company that leased out medical equipment. When the hospitals in New Orleans shut down, they were sending patients to every surrounding state like cattle. We worked five days straight (sleeping in the hallway when we could). We had two shifts consisting on four 2-man teams driving equipment to hospitals all over the South. We also had 10 techs who would unload, clean, calibrate and ready equipment off of trucks delivery to our office. We wouldn’t turn our delivery vans off — they would drive up; teams switch; we’d clean off windshields as techs loaded up equipment; then they’d drive off to another location.
—Michael Devall, Lake Village
On Sept. 2 of that year, deputies with the Union County Sheriff’s Office loaded up medical supplies and other equipment to travel south to provide assistance to those trying to cope with the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
On Sept. 4, 2005, then-Union County Judge Bobby Edmonds welcomed several hundred evacuees to Union County at an outdoor dinner and social at the El Dorado/Union County Recreation Complex. Officials estimated that 400 to 500 evacuees attended the event.
St. Paul United Methodist Church provided meals to evacuees and held free movies for children. Local veterinarians offered free pet boarding services to evacuees that were staying in hotels that prohibited pets. East Main Baptist Church and First United Methodist also provided food and movies for evacuees.
Hotels in this area were filled to capacity and it was reported that hotels all the way to Little Rock were filled with evacuees from the Gulf Coast.
The local chapter of the American Red Cross offered services and supplies to Katrina victims in this area and several local Red Cross volunteers traveled from El Dorado to hurricane disaster areas to provide cots for shelters along the devastated coast.
On Aug. 31 of that year, Union County Sheriff’s deputies, reserve officers and search and rescue volunteers made plans for deployment to some of the hardest hit areas along the Gulf Coast.
On Sept. 2, a convoy of Arkansas National Guardsmen met at the junction of Arkansas 7 and U.S. 167 in El Dorado, as about 1,000 soldiers and airmen prepared for a trip to the Gulf Coast to help however they could – policing the streets in the hardest hit areas, searching for victims, assisting with clean-up efforts and delivering much-needed supplies to workers and residents in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Several local residents and groups held collection drives during the first two weeks of September 2005 and gathered truck loads of items – water, cleaning supplies and food – needed by residents hard-hit by Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. They either drove the trucks filled with supplies themselves to ravaged areas or provided the means to have those goods shipped to our neighbors to the south.