NEA Members Pick up the Pieces in Alabama

Library Staffer Buoyed by Support from Colleagues

For two long days after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, NEA member Bridget Pugh couldn't reach her husband. He had decided to stay behind when she and her 12-year-old daughter finally fled the rising waters of their home in Driftwood Acres in Mobile County, Alabama.

The day after the storm, Pugh and her daughter tried to get back to their home. "We went down there but we couldn't get to the house," she said. "People were in the water waist-deep trying get out of the area, but my husband was still down there somewhere."

Finally, she says, they were able to make contact by phone. And a relieved Pugh started making plans to meet her husband at their house to survey the situation. Mentally she had already rolled up her sleeves, ready to take on a massive cleanup effort.

When she got to her neighborhood, the devastation was worse than she had expected. "It was overwhelming," Pugh said. "I could not believe what I saw. People's houses were in their yards, everything was soaked."

Still, she says she kept her hopes up -- until she opened the front door to her own home. The water had gone on a rampage through the house, destroying everything inside. "I was not prepared," she said. "I was just not prepared….We lost everything we had."

Bridget Pugh and her family are hardly alone. Though news reports have focused mainly on New Orleans and coastal Mississippi, thousands of people in Mobile County were hit hard by Katrina. But this library paraprofessional counts herself among the lucky ones because of the outpouring of support that she has received from her school and Association family. She appreciates all of the offers of financial help she has received, and counts among her blessings the many phone calls and hugs that mean so much to her.

"It means a lot to know that other people care," she said. "The more people pitch in, the sooner we can get back to our regular lives."

Future Uncertain for Alabama Bus Driver

Darlene Brannan has been staying with friends ever since her home in Bayou Sara, Alabama, was deluged during Hurricane Katrina. And she's not expecting to move back home any time soon.

Brannan, a Mobile County School District bus driver and NEA member, was able to evacuate with her two teenagers before the waters engulfed their neighborhood.

"It's amazing, once that water starts coming, how fast it comes. It seems like it's coming at you at 75 miles per hour," she said. "It was a battle against time."

They returned two days later to find their home devastated. Even though Brannan has gone back every day to clean up and salvage what she can, her house remains uninhabitable. Mold climbs the walls and shallow pockets of grimy water cover the floors. Her yard is piled high with broken appliances, sodden mattresses and ruined furniture.

But unlike a lot of Hurricane Katrina survivors, Brannan still has a job to go to. She drives a school bus to Clark Magnet School, which is in a neighborhood that sustained wind damage but not the kind of devastation that Brannan and so many others know firsthand. Despite her own situation, she tries to remain upbeat for her young riders "because I know how hard it is for them to understand what's happened."

She says the Red Cross and FEMA have been helpful, and she has received clothes, money and gift cards from her colleagues at school and fellow NEA members. "Everyone is being very helpful," she said.

Like many impacted by Katrina, Brannan is not certain what comes next. She can't live in her house, yet she still has to make mortgage payments. And she has yet to find an affordable place to rent.

Whether she will ultimately remain in Bayou Sara is another question for Brannan, whose home was also hit by Hurricane Georges in 1999. "I really don’t know if I'll be able to stay here," she said. "It's just so hard -– emotionally, physically and mentally. I just don’t know if I can do it again."

--Cindy Long, NEA staff writer

September 21, 2005