Victims find refuge in Vegas relatives’ home

By Emily Richmond

Monday, Sept. 12, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.

Two weeks ago Kim and Jesse Sherrod were living alone in their northwest Las Vegas home, keeping a frantic eye on weather reports as Hurricane Katrina made landfall in their hometown of New Orleans.

In the wake of the storm the occupancy of the Sherrod residence has increased by an even dozen, with at least three more relatives en route.

Sherrod and her husband, who is an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, settled in the Peccole Ranch subdivision 14 years ago. It never occurred to her then that her home in the faraway West would become a refuge for the close-knit extended family that remained in Louisiana.

"We're the only ones with a house left," said Sherrod, as she picked her way through the maze of air mattresses, plastic bags and boxes that have turned her foyer into a makeshift motel. The house guests include siblings, cousins, in-laws along with her own mother and mother-in-law.

"Everything's been destroyed, my family lost everything," Sherrod said. "Of course, I told them to come here."

For Sherrod's sister Marlene Franklin, there was never a question of whether she would attempt to ride out the storm in her house in uptown New Orleans near St. Charles Avenue.

She and her husband, Albert, are the primary caregivers to their only child, 33-year-old Reginald, who was left a quadriplegic and nonverbal after suffering three cerebral aneurysms five years ago. Two of the aneurysms bled, causing permanent damage.

"He understands everything, he knows everyone," said Franklin, who is also raising her 10-year-old grandson, Reggie. "But he can't do anything for himself. He requires 24-hour care."

When Hurricane Katrina appeared to be strengthening Aug. 26, Franklin began calling around town to rent a specially equipped van to carry her son to safety. She finally found one available about a 90-minute drive into Mississippi.

"I knew Friday we had to get out of there," Franklin said. "Sometimes they say it's mandatory, sometimes they say it's voluntary. I leave regardless."

Her husband was at first less concerned than she was. She waylaid her husband as he headed out for a round of golf Saturday morning.

"I said, 'Albert, we're going to have to get a van,' " Franklin recalled as she stood next to her son's wheelchair in her sister's Las Vegas living room. "And he said, 'Oh no, we're not leaving this time.' And I said, 'I love you, yes, but are you going to do this one thing for me, help me pick up this van? If you want to stay, I love you and you have my blessings. But I am leaving.' "

While her husband played golf, Franklin shopped for bread and cold cuts to make sandwiches and filled up water bottles.

"Then I went and did the laundry," Franklin said. "I washed everything in the house down to the last sock. In my heart I knew we were leaving."

Two other members of the Franklin family made the three-day drive to Las Vegas: their son's parakeets Blue Jay and P.J. The birds were purchased on the advice of one of their son's nurses who suggested an animal would be good company.

"He loves to watch them, we put the cage next to his bed," Franklin said.

With the Franklins setting off first, nine other family members followed their route westward in cars and trucks. The caravan included Julie Gilyot, Franklin and Sherrod's sister. With Gilyot was her husband, Lee, 16-year-old daughter, Ansley, and 5-year-old son, L.J.

Federal troops have since sealed off the Gilyots' neighborhood just east of the city's center. There's no one to tell them the fate of their four-bedroom home.

But according to a third sister who survived the storm and its aftermath from inside the county courthouse where her daughter works for a judge, it doesn't look good.

"From all indications in the media and my sister Joan, that part of the city was underwater to the rooftops," said Gilyot, who worked with her husband as a mortgage broker.

The family was able to pack some belongings, but a last-minute search failed to turn up one irreplacable momento: a videotape of Ansley's birth, with Gilyot's brother-in-law, Jesse Sherrod, attending as obstetrician.

"I have some remorse over the precious things we left behind, but her videotape, that's really tearing me apart," Gilyot said. "I thought she might want to show her children one day."

At the same time, Gilyot knows just how fortunate her family has been.

Unlike thousands of other people in the gulf region, they had the resources to leave and a family to offer shelter and support once they arrived in Las Vegas. Their faith in God has also sustained them.

"We've accomplished a lot, we're hard-working people, we try to be good parents and good citizens ... everything we've worked so hard for has been taken away from us," Gilyot said. "However, we respect that everything that happens in life is a result of His work. If this is what He wants for us, there's a reason in His way and His plan, not our way and our plan."

When the Gilyots realized they may not have a home to return to, establishing some sense of normalcy for their children became a priority. Ansley enrolled as a junior last week at Faith Lutheran High School, as did her cousin Sovonna, who also fled New Orleans.

L.J. is attending kindergarten at Piggott Elementary School. Their cousin Reggie Franklin started the fifth grade there last week.

Seated at her aunt's dining room table, her American history textbook and homework spread around her, Ansley said she had felt warmly welcomed by the Faith Lutheran school community, a sentiment echoed by her aunt and uncle about the reception they had received at Piggott.

Reggie, who starts his first full week of classes at Piggott today, said he has already made a few new friends.

"I told them about my hurricane," Reggie said. "Everybody's nice so far. I like my teacher."

His class at Piggott is "much harder" than he was used to in New Orleans.

"We have to do work in school too, not just homework," Reggie said.

With her children in school, Gilyot said her next step will be to find a place for her family to live. While her sister has made it clear she is welcome to stay as long as necessary "14 people in one house is a lot," Gilyot said.

When asked if she wants to return to New Orleans, Gilyot sighs and then pauses before answering.

"I don't -- my husband does," she said. "If you're born and raised there all your life and your family's there, you know there's something special about New Orleans. It is dear to us. But I'm deathly afraid to move back."

Adding to her fears are the scenes of mayhem and despair that have scrolled nonstop in the media since the hurricane. Gilyot questioned whether the emergency response would be any better if another disaster struck the region.

"At heart I want to be there, realistically I'm afraid to be there," Gilyot said. "If New Orleans were not below sea level, I would move back in a heartbeat. I don't want to put my children in a possible life-threatening situation."

Ansley said she "definitely" wants to return to New Orleans but shared her mother's concerns about the adequacy of the government response. Other crises, both at home and abroad, appear to have been handled better, Ainsley said.

"Look at 9/11, on that very day we saw firefighters getting people out the buildings, you saw everybody come together right away," Ansley said. "Even the tsunami, it wasn't over here, but there was a national effort to help people. With Katrina it seemed like 'We're going to do it, but we're going to do it in a little while.' "

As for the Franklins, it looks like Las Vegas will be their home as well for some time.

They were both working for the New Orleans public schools -- Albert teaching in a high school marketing program and Marlene as a para-professional for special education. Those jobs, along with many of the city's schools, disappeared with the rising water.

Albert Franklin plans to apply for work with the Clark County School District. But Marlene Franklin said she can't even consider an outside job yet. First she must sort out the red tape of transferring her son's Medicaid benefits to Las Vegas so that she can fill his prescriptions at a local pharmacy and line up a visiting nurse to help care for him.

And then there's the problem of the rented van, Franklin said. While the medical supply company has a branch in Henderson, the Mississippi office has told the Franklins there's no one qualified to drive the vehicle back. So the Franklins will now have to pay for someone from the Mississippi office to fly out to Nevada and retrieve the vehicle.

"Paying for the plane ticket, that was sprung on me all of a sudden," Franklin said. "But what else could we do, that was the only way to get my son out of there."

There will be some tough days ahead for this family as the waters recede and the damage and loss is tallied. But Kim Sherrod was able to find one silver lining.

"My daughter graduates from medical school (University of Southern California) on the 14th of May," said Sherrod, who also has a son attending college in Arkansas. "She said (before the hurricane) 'Mom, it's too far, nobody's coming to my graduation.' I told her we have enough family here now for two parties.' "