Dallas officials try to link refugees, home

[TexasStooge]

Some call emergency offices here to aid Louisiana relatives

By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News

Tara Alexander was settling into a Dallas hotel with about two dozen fellow New Orleans refugees when her cellphone rang.

More than 530 miles away, six relatives – including her ailing 76-year-old grandfather and an epileptic cousin – struggled to reach the roof of an apartment building as water topped the street lamps outside.

There was only time for one call. Emergency lines in New Orleans were inundated.

The family called Ms. Alexander. She heard her aunt's voice on the phone, desperate and praying for help. After about three minutes, the connection was lost.

"I just thought that, God, they were going to die," said Ms. Alexander. "I couldn't call back; the circuits were busy. I felt helpless, hopeless."

Similar crises were playing out all over. Although they're hundreds of miles away, emergency workers in Texas have found themselves confronted by the desperation of families divided by Hurricane Katrina.

Many callers were separated as they fled for higher ground. Others, like Ms. Alexander, wanted to save relatives still in danger.

On Monday, she asked a family friend among the 20 refugees she was with to take charge. At 1:29 p.m., Dallas 911 received a call.

"My name is Ave Thomas," he said, quickly describing the crisis. "I'm just trying to get these people rescued off the roof. The water is rising rapidly."

The Dallas 911 call taker passed on the name of the Willows Apartments near Lake Pontchartrain to Dallas' Office of Emergency Management, which tried to help.

"It made me think of my family," said Leticia Sustaita, a call center supervisor.

"Under normal circumstances, we would call the fire department in that city," said Kenny Shaw, the office's director. "We couldn't get them at all."

Such calls were not unusual this week.

"We got three or four like this," said Mr. Shaw. "We got a phone call from someone here who said that there were two elderly people trapped in a basement in New Orleans. Others were saying that there were people on the roof."

The hardest part is not knowing whether information passed on to Louisiana officials helps, said Mr. Shaw.

Tuesday evening, Ms. Alexander still didn't know what had happened to her relatives.

"Now, I'm just looking at all this on television," said the 36-year-old gospel singer. "Who knows where they are?"