More than two dozen Caymanian family members of 79-year-old Oriel Anglin met the New Orleans resident and Hurricane Katrina survivor at Owen Roberts International Airport.
Caymanian Hurricane Katrina survivor Oriel Anglin, centre holding a child, was met by a large contingent of family members when he returned home from New Orleans last Thursday. |
Mr. Anglin was in his house on Touro Street, only a short distance from the historic French Quarter, when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on 29 August.
‘I didn’t think it would get as bad as it did,’ Mr. Anglin said of the hurricane.
Mr. Anglin had just returned to New Orleans after his annual visit to Grand Cayman on 17 August.
Despite several pleading attempts to get him to evacuate, Mr. Anglin stayed put in his house.
‘It is a strong house and it is built up 32 inches off the ground,’ he said.
Mr. Anglin, who left his birthplace in Cayman for the United States nearly 60 years ago, said his two daughters, both New Orleans residents, decided to evacuate the city on Sunday.
During the hurricane, Mr. Anglin’s house suffered very little damage.
‘It blew off a few shingles, and tore some of the felt off so I had a little hole in the roof where water was coming in,’ he said.
‘I could see from the water stain on the ceiling where the water was coming from, so I took a putty knife and a towel and went up in the attic and plugged up the hole.’
It wasn’t long after Katrina came ashore that water flooded Mr. Anglin’s street. However, with his house being built up off the ground, water never entered his house.
‘The houses on the other side of the street got flooded, but the water only came up to the bottom of my porch. You could hear the water hitting underneath.’
In the street in front of his house, the flood water was waist deep on the people who evacuated their homes across from him.
With contaminated water surrounding him, Mr. Anglin stayed put at his house, spending much of his time on the porch.
Although he had not gone out to buy hurricane supplies, Mr. Anglin said he had plenty of water and food in his refrigerator.
With a gas stove, Mr. Anglin was able to cook meals, including the famous Louisiana dish, gumbo, which he shared with his neighbours.
No one died in Mr. Anglin’s neighbourhood, but he did learn of the death of one of his acquaintances who lived a short distance away.
He knew that his family was worried about him, but they had no way of contacting him because his cell phone was not working.
Mr. Anglin would have been content to stay at his house had the water receded. When the water had not receded by the following Saturday, Mr. Anglin knew he had to leave.
A small boat manned by the US Coast Guard came by his house on Saturday, and he called it over and told the he wanted to leave.
After taking a few minutes to pack some of his things, eat the rest of the food he had prepared, and to secure his house, Mr. Anglin boarded the small pontoon boat.
He was taken to a section of Interstate 10 where he boarded a helicopter for the first time in his life and was flown to the airport.
From there, he travelled to and old Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas where he stayed with many others displaced from their homes by Hurricane Katrina.
Once in San Antonio, Mr. Anglin’s mobile telephone began to work again and he was able to contact his very relieved daughters.
It was quickly arranged for him to return to Cayman, where he will stay with his nephew Charles Ebanks.
Through it all, Mr. Anglin did not get wet from the terrible flooding in New Orleans.
‘I never got a drop of water on me,’ he said. ‘I was exceptionally lucky. That was the good Lord answering my prayers.’
Returning home through Houston on Cayman Airways, Mr. Anglin was surprised to find so many of his relatives there to greet him.
‘I almost cried to see everyone,’ he said, adding that the emotion made him little weak in the knees.
Mr. Anglin said he intends to return to the United States eventually, but said he wants to leave New Orleans.
‘I’ve made a decision that I’m not living under sea level any more,’ he said.
Port Arthur, Texas, where he lived once before for two years, is one possibility of a place to where he will relocate. San Antonio, which he had never been to prior to 4 September, is another, he said.
‘There were so nice to me in San Antonio, I might want to live there.’
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