106 arrive dazed but are touched by generosity of volunteers

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, September 10, 2005

BY KAREN LEE ZINER, STEVE PEOPLES and KIA HALL HAYES
Journal Staff Writer

For a week and a half, Billy J. Williams was the only one staying at the St. Peter House, a hotel just outside New Orleans' French Quarter.

But the 56-year-old maintenance man had little more than a roof over his head there. On Thursday night, a week and a half after Hurricane Katrina hit, he decided it was time to go.

"I was the only person there. Maybe it was the solitude," said Williams last night upon his arrival in Rhode Island.

Yesterday, he boarded a plane with 105 other storm survivors who were being relocated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, believing that it was heading to Houston, where Williams planned to meet his wife and grandchildren.

But not until the doors closed did Williams and the other evacuees learn they were heading for the Ocean State. (The captain confirmed that not even he knew where the plane was heading until the last minute.)

"I was only 250 miles away, but now I'm 2,500 miles away," Williams said. "I was a little disappointed my wife and grandkids are in Houston."

But after a warm welcome from hundreds of volunteers and public officials at Quonset State Airport and a hot meal -- an effort coordinated by the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency -- Williams was feeling better.

Outside the Middletown housing development where the new arrivals are being relocated for the foreseeable future, Williams allowed volunteers to drape Mardi Gras beads over his green T-shirt. He also wore a smile.

"The people here are friendly. I'm enjoying myself now," Williams said.

Michael Sullivan, 26, said he left his three brothers behind in New Orleans and boarded the plane with his girlfriend. They also thought they were headed for Houston, he said.

"I couldn't take it no more. The mosquitoes were tearing us up," Sullivan said of the situation in New Orleans, where the water had risen waist-deep outside his house.

A former tree cutter, Sullivan said he was planning on staying "maybe forever" in Rhode Island.

"We were happy what people have done for us," he said, as he repeated "thank you" to numerous volunteers last night. "I ain't worried."

At 10 p.m., the new arrivals were being escorted into apartments at former military housing in Middletown that had been newly furnished with donated furniture and stocked with snacks and toiletries.

GOVERNOR CARCIERI and Dr. David A. Gifford, director of the state's Health Department, said a family support center is being set up outside the housing development, along with a temporary medical clinic.

"First thing, we'll just get them settled," said Carcieri as the new arrivals were being fed beef stew and minestrone soup in the C-130 hangar behind him at Quonset. "We'll get them comfortable."

Carcieri said state officials had been expecting two planes last night, with up to several hundred people. The situation changed from hour to hour.

"I would not be surprised to see us take some more" people from the Gulf Coast, the governor said, reiterating that Rhode Island would extend its warmest welcome.

At 5:30, Carcieri addressed the hundreds of volunteers who were called out to the tarmac for the briefing.

"I feel an enormous pride in all of you," Carcieri said, looking out over a sea of people in blue, orange, red and green vests that identified their various agencies. "These are people who have been completely devastated," he said, telling the volunteers to "prepare for anything."

The plane touched down at 6:45 p.m., carrying people with few possessions but burdened with grief and loss for all that the storm had stolen from them.

Still, many of them smiled and waved as they stepped onto the tarmac to applause from hundreds of volunteers from the Rhode Island chapter of the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the Rhode Island Disaster Medical Assistance Team, numerous clergy, and state police, Army and Air National guardsmen and women, Carcieri, Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty, and members of Rhode Island congressional delegation.

The first person off the plane was a man who appeared to be in his 20s; he puffed on a cigarette as he made his way through the gauntlet of greeters.

FROM THE WRECKAGE, most had salvaged only the clothes on their backs or a few possessions. They carried an assortment of plastic bags, some with toilet paper and soda and water bottles in them.

A few people clung to their pets' leashes like they were lifelines.

One man brought a basset hound whose floppy ears nearly touched the tarmac. One man had a German shepherd, a black Labrador retriever and a mixed-breed dog.

"Does the dog bite?" someone asked the man with the German shepherd.

The answer was yes.

"I jumped back," Carcieri said later, with a laugh.

Members of the Rhode Island Disaster Medical Assistance Team set up a field hospital in front of the hangar where doctors, nurses and other medical professionals were prepared to triage people as they arrived.

Gifford, the state's health director, said that two people were taken to the hospital. One had an abscess and the other appeared to have a leg or ankle fracture.

There was "just a handful" of people who needed immediate medical attention, Gifford said. "A lot of people were very tired . . . there is some anxiety, some frustration. We're not seeing anyone having a psychotic-type issue," as has been seen in some states, he said.

The generosity of Rhode Islanders was evident last night. As Carcieri had asked them to do, they had opened up their hearts.

"I'm on the cracker table," said Anna Rotondo of North Kingstown, who came with neighbor and former state Rep. Melvoid Benson. "Peanut butter, crackers, drinks, cheese and fruit" were what Rotondo was ready to serve.

CVS donated $10,000 worth of toothbrushes and other personal-care products. Ocean State Job Lot said it would donate $25,000 worth of merchandise, outfitting the evacuees' Middletown apartments with bedding, cookware and other items. Samonsite donated 500 tote bags.

At the Anchorage site, the 75 units that will house Middletown's new residents have at least two bedrooms, with a full kitchen with a refrigerator, stove and sink, a living room and front and back yards.

Initially, they are sparsely furnished, with two cots in each bedroom. But more than 40 Navy personnel were scheduled to move in household furniture donated by local furniture stores, said Nick Logethets, director of disaster services for Rhode Island's Red Cross chapter.

Upon arrival in Middletown, the new residents will fill out lease forms for their new homes. Newport County Mental Health will be present at Quonset and Middletown to help distraught evacuees.

Today, each hurricane victim or family will be given a check worth up to $1,565 (depending on the family size) from the Red Cross. Citizens Bank employees will be on site in the morning to cash the checks and shuttles will take the evacuees to Stop & Shop starting at 10 a.m. to go grocery shopping.