Lafayette, LA: Hurricane Katrina Special Report

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UPDATE: Lafayette, One Year Later Coverage from 2005 Lafayette, LA (2006) — When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi last August, thousands of New Orleans residents ended up in Lafayette, LA, just two hours west of the Crescent City. A year after stepping outside of its mission to provide evacuees with immediate disaster relief, Goodwill Industries Acadiana is now helping New Orleans natives deal with the lingering effects of the big one. In the immediate wake of the storm, the Goodwill's staff handled material donations for the city's special needs shelter, helped broker needed donations for evacuees and found housing and furniture for a number of storm victims. In January, it closed its Hurricane Relief Center—a one-stop shop for Katrina evacuees who needed clothing and personal items, as well as job services and counseling. All told, the center served 8,222 people, most of whom collected goods rather than services. As one of the major collection and distribution points for clothing and household goods flowing into Lafayette, the Goodwill reached deep into its cash reserves to pay the associated costs of providing that service. Helping to Meet Evacuees' Emotional Needs One year after Hurricane Katrina, CEO Sandra Purgahn says her staff has a role in helping evacuees deal with the emotional aftermath of having survived the event and the practical challenges they now face. Collectively, the Goodwill served 458 evacuees with case management and other services. The agency also placed 33 Katrina evacuees into jobs. But Purgahn said she fears that the estimated 20,000 evacuees still in Lafayette have reached a precarious point in their recovery. Many evacuees are just now dealing with the fact that Lafayette may be home for a while—and coping with that reality without a network of family or friends. With the dearth of affordable housing in the area, many evacuees are being forced to move into more rural communities, which lack transit options that could get them to jobs or education centers. "I don't think it's as bad as it's gonna get," Purgahn said. "People are trying to move back [to New Orleans] and create a sense of normalcy, but there's nothing there. Families are falling apart." Ironically, the Goodwill has experienced some positive donation trends in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Purgahn says, "So many people found out you could shop at Goodwill." The agency has also seen an uptick in service expansion. This year, the Goodwill has identified more "niches of need," growing youth services and broadening its domestic abuse outreach. The hurricane also spurred the local United Way chapter to establish the Acadiana Area Donations Coordination Team. Made up of area nonprofit providers and churches, the team has allocated service provision in the case of another disaster. If another disaster occurs, Goodwill will be the sole distributor of clothing and household items.

Goodwill Cares for Special Needs Evacuees  

Lafayette, LA (2005) —It was September 1 when Rick Hughes -- manager of one of south Louisiana's specially designated storm shelters for people with special needs -- watched medical supplies and clothing pouring into his Lafayette facility and knew he needed some help processing it.

"[There was] the milk of human kindness, and we were tripping over it," Hughes said September 16.

Hughes called Goodwill Industries of Acadiana (Lafayette, LA) CEO Sandy Purgahn , whom he has worked with for years in his day job as regional manager of Louisiana Rehabilitation Services, the state's vocational rehabilitation agency. And, like that, the Goodwill began organizing the shelter's donation process.

The shelter for special needs is located at the Heymann Center for Performing Arts, taking up a cavernous room that was filled with 300 clients, caregivers and children at the height of the facility's activity. It is now home to about 45 clients requiring medical supervision, with conditions ranging from autism to blindness to HIV to gun shot wounds. Fifteen caregivers and four children also called the shelter home, as of September 16.

"Initially, they sent us a list of what everyone needed, and we went out and got it," said Joel Vincent , the Goodwill's Director of Retail. "Then, they needed everything."

Purgahn and her staff responded by going to the Goodwill movement and the public, asking for clothing of certain large sizes, disposable undergarments and blankets. Purgahn, a past president of Rotary Club South, also appealed to her fellow Rotarians, who raised more than $40,000 to buy and collect some of the needed goods.

For the first few weeks after people were transferred sometimes straight from the waters of Lake Pontchartain to the Heymann shelter, the facility has bustled with activity, as people were made comfortable and cared for by a team of U.S. Public Health Service officials deployed from all over the country. But, on September 16, as a 70-member team from the Mayo Clinic prepared to pick up where the U.S. Public Health Service will leave off, most of the shelter clients were in the process of finding permanent housing throughout Lafayette's outlying areas.

That process caused a dilemma for the shelter organizers, Hughes said. "We have been trying to find housing with no resources," he said.

Goodwill has stepped in to fill that void, too, led by Purgahn and Joy Miguez,  the Lafayette Goodwill's Vice President of Human Services. The Goodwill first helped a man with quadriplegia fly to a family member's house in Rochester, NY, after a Rotarian gave Purgahn a $1,200 check to cover most of the man's travel expenses.

As of September 16, the Goodwill has helped find housing for eight shelter clients, placing four people in Jeanerette, one in Lafayette and three in St. Martin's Parish, Miguez said. In addition, the Goodwill has secured a $12,000 grant from Rotary International to pay for a set each of bedroom, living room, dining room and kitchen furniture that will help 13 storm evacuees as they set up more permanent digs, she said.

Royal Allen, a retired truck driver from New Orleans, is staying at the Heymann shelter with his wife, Lorraine, but they plan to leave September 19 for their new place on the second floor of a house in nearby St. Martinville.

He's lived in New Orleans his entire life, and isn't quite sure how he feels about the move to St. Martinville.

"If you've been there your whole life, what can you do," Allen said. "It's heartbreaking, naturally. I can't go back [to my home]. I don't know if I'll go back [to New Orleans]."

Before returning to his thoughts, Allen said he and his wife were coping patiently. "Does Goodwill issue beds and pots and pans?" he asked.

Inside the shelter, Hughes said he believes Goodwill will have a role in the long-term recovery of storm evacuees by providing the job services they always have to the community.

"We're absorbing 1,000 people in our economy," said Hughes, slipping back for a moment to his role as regional manager of Louisiana Rehabilitation Services. "If [Goodwill] sees a client, we will work mutually with them."