Relocated family worries about relatives left behind

J. Craig Anderson

Friday, Sept. 16, 2005 | 11:14 a.m.

Six of Wylita Guichard's relatives are gathered at her home Thursday, occupying every available seat in its spacious family room, but the place has never felt so empty.

About 50 members of Guichard's extended family were living in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck. The six who are now accounted for arrived at her house in Henderson on Saturday.

Those six are Guichard's grandmother Pauline Guichard, aunts Mary Jones and Paulette Stokes, cousin Alvin Boisseau, niece Maritza Caston and grandniece Alyia Stokes.

Guichard's daughter, Tyneshia Brooks, and sister, Marshell Montgomery, also live with her in Henderson.

No one has seen or heard from the others, and the likelihood that they are still alive diminishes with each passing day.

"I don't know where my son's at. I don't know where my nephew's at," said Jones, 57. "Everybody they're finding now is dead."

Their expressionless faces belie the flood of conflicting emotions they have endured since escaping from the two-week nightmare. Relief is tainted with anxiety and hopelessness.

"You don't even want to think about it," 52-year-old Paulette Stokes said.

Mixed in with all of the other feelings is a sense of shock at what they have seen.

The six family members trudged 10 miles through stinking, oily water to reach the New Orleans Convention Center. The journey took three days and required them to traverse areas where the water was too deep for Guichard's petite grandmother, 84-year-old Pauline Guichard.

Luckily, some tall men whom they met offered to let her ride on their shoulders.

"The water was way over my head, and I wasn't taking any chances," Pauline Guichard said.

Upon arrival at the convention center, the family witnessed acts of brutality and despair previously unimaginable.

"Little girls were getting raped," said Caston, 19. "Some people were killing themselves."

Caston had never seen a dead body before arriving at the convention center. She estimates that she saw about 40 there.

She watched helplessly as people died right next to her, saw their bodies being wrapped up and stored in freezers.

"I kept my eyes closed when they passed by me," Jones said.

For Pauline Guichard, the disaster also has taken away the home in which she planned to peacefully live out the end of her days.

"It's a dirty trick, too," she said, "just when I almost got through paying for it."

Wylita Guichard is hoping the Red Cross or another donor will help her relatives pay for an apartment until they can find jobs. She also has posted her contact information on Internet sites for hurricane survivors who are seeking their loved ones.

In the meantime, the family will wait and hope against hope for a pleasant surprise.

"It's good to have our family here, but it's sad," she said. "You can see the sadness in their faces."

Still, the group is able to share a brief moment of laughter when Montgomery reminds them how she used to tease them for never coming to visit Nevada.

"We told them it would take a flood for them to come," she said.