Hurricane transplants given lemons, make lemonade

Alana Roberts

Saturday, Oct. 29, 2005 | 8:56 a.m.

Work is a good thing for Belinda Elliott, a former line cook at the Grand Casino Gulfport, who now works as a pantry cook at Harrah's Las Vegas.

Elliott, 49, of Gulfport, Miss., is one of about 50 workers and their families who Unite Here, parent of the Culinary Union, has assisted in moving to Las Vegas from areas hit by Hurricane Katrina.

"What I did at the Grand was I worked in the (employee dining room)," Elliott said. "I did that until Katrina came. In June 2006 it would have been 13 years. Now I have to start all over. That doesn't bother me. I'm 49 years old; I can start over."

Elliott said she rented a room at a friend's house in Gulfport. She said the house was damaged but wasn't ruined. But her car was ruined. However, she said the real motivating factor for moving to Las Vegas was the opportunity to work.

The fact that she worked for a Harrah's property helped in getting her a job in Las Vegas, she said. She also said the wages she continued to receive helped to ease her transition.

Elliott left Gulfport for Las Vegas on Sept. 27 and started at Harrah's on Oct. 15.

"I had to move," she said. "I didn't have a job; my job was sitting on Highway 90. The union called me, and I was in touch with Harrah's.

I would go anywhere, wherever I could get a job. They sent me to Vegas. I was all gung-ho; I always wanted to go to Vegas to gamble. I'm working now, it's a different experience."

She said people at the union, at the company and at Nevada Partners have gone out of their way to assist her in getting adjusted to her new life.

"I can say since I got here Nevada Partners has done a good job in taking us places," Elliott said. "They have taken us to the DMV, they've taken us to the grocery store, and they took us to (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), to the Red Cross.

"The lady from the union picked me up at Nevada Partners and took me to the (Clark County Health Department) to get my work card. When I got done, Nevada Partners sent someone to take me home."

Unite Here is one of seven Change to Win Coalition unions banding together to help people in each of their industries to get back on their feet through fundraising and rebuilding efforts.

The group teams with community organizations such as Rainbow/PUSH and Nevada Partners to help get workers food, clothing and housing. It also finds transportation to new destinations and offers job training and job-placement services.

Unite Here also has created a worker assistance center in Biloxi, Miss., where it is assisting workers by providing food, housing, health care, day care and legal services.

D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of Culinary Local 226 in Las Vegas, said Southern Nevada is a good place for workers who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina because of the opportunities.

"There's openings in the places here, and so we're excited about helping those folks," Taylor said. "We know it's going to be a long-term project. Katrina will go off the front pages, but the devastation and the need will be there."

Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, chief operating officer of Nevada Partners and the Culinary Training Academy, said not all of those relocated workers went directly to work because they needed additional training.

That's where the Culinary Training Academy steps in, he said.

"Some are already working, some are in the process of going to work," Horsford said. "Some of them needed training because of the different standard here in Las Vegas compared to Mississippi."

David Strow, a Harrah's Entertainment spokesman, said his company is also moving some of its displaced workers from the areas devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to Las Vegas if they're willing to come. The company has so far assisted about 150 employees.

It also agreed to continue paying workers for 90 days.

Strow said the hurricane-affected employees worked at Harrah's New Orleans, Harrah's Lake Charles, the Grand Casino Gulfport and the Grand Casino Biloxi.

"Not surprisingly, Las Vegas has been one of the areas where we've seen some interest because of the sheer number of jobs available with the six properties here," he said. "I've heard this from employees. They said, 'We want to work in the heart of this industry, that's Las Vegas.' "

Harrah's Entertainment has raised about $3 million to assist workers with moving costs and in finding temporary shelter around the nation, Strow said. The company has received contributions from executives, employees and vendors.

The company let workers stay temporarily at Bourbon Street until it closed, and at the Flamingo, he added.

"We have our own relief effort that we're undertaking," Strow said. "We both (the union and Harrah's) have absolutely the same goal in mind and that is taking care of our colleagues. At the moment we've had four casinos impacted. That's nearly 9,000 employees."

Angela Moore, 36, was a cocktail server at the Grand Casino Gulfport. The mother of two sons -- Jordan, 6, and Riley, 4 -- said her house in Long Beach, Miss., was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. She is one of the 150 employees the company has helped move to Las Vegas.

When the storm first hit she almost didn't leave because of the hassle of having to relocate, she said. But the night before the hurricane, Moore moved to her ex-husband's family's farm about 200 miles away.

"I thought it wasn't going to be that bad," Moore said. "I told myself, 'We need to go because you never know.' I'm so glad that we did."

She said the company paid for her move to Las Vegas and boarded her at the Bourbon Street.

Moore is now a cocktail server at Harrah's. "It's a complete culture shock," she said of her experience in Las Vegas. "Things are a lot busier and faster-paced. The casinos are so much larger, but my overall experience has been positive.

"People have just extended a warm, compassionate welcome to us. It's very humbling because you work hard your whole life to earn your house and your belongings, and Mother Nature comes along and takes it away."

Moore, who has worked in the gaming industry for about 15 years, said she is ready to make Las Vegas her permanent home.

"I chose Las Vegas, it was my first choice because I've been in the business a long time and I had two little boys who very much depend on me," she said. "I wanted to come to a place that would be safe as far as natural disasters are concerned. The opportunities Harrah's offered me were amazing."

She is renting a home that she hopes to buy in a year.

"Things are starting to go well," she said.

Alana Roberts can be reached at 259-4059 or at alanar@lasvegassun.com.