Hurricane evacuees seek Gallup home

By Karen Francis
Staff writer

GALLUP — It wasn’t enough that the Saavedras survived Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States . Now they must survive the bureaucratic hurdles of the Federal Emergency Management Agency as they try to rebuild their lives.

Two years after Hurricane Katrina devastated their lives, Rod and Susan Saavedra are living in a motel in Gallup trying to find a permanent place to settle. Cramped in a tiny room with Rod’s sister and five tiny dogs, they try to make it feel a little homier with home-made quilts on the beds and other little touches.

The couple and Rod’s sister arrived in Gallup hauling all their belongings in a homemade storage trailer almost three weeks ago from the small community of Bay St. Louis, Miss., and they have every intention of staying.

‘”I love the people here. Everyone we met has been awesome,” Rod said. “We love it. We don’t want to go anywhere else.”

Bay St. Louis , a small ocean side town, was destroyed by the hurricane two years ago, along with the Saavedras’ house and many of their families’ homes as well.

“There wasn’t nobody that escaped that one,” Rod said.

Susan added that members of her family were going through the same predicament as they tried to rebuild their lives.

“It was devastating,” she said.

In the past two years, the Saavedras were sent all over the country — from Florida to Missouri — before making it back to their home town of Bay St. Louis . Once they returned though, they were unable to find a permanent residence.

“There’s no way we can afford something back home,” Rod said adding that the cost of homes there has tripled since Hurricane Katrina.

“They moved us from one trailer to another,” he said. “I’m not complaining about FEMA but this is getting old.”

The three left a two-bedroom trailer in Mississippi at the urging of FEMA, Rod said.

More than 1,300 miles from their hometown, they believe that they have found a new home town in Gallup . What they’re lacking now is a home.

While FEMA helps pay the cost of housing for the Saavedras, they have not been able to locate a residence with landlords who are willing to work with the agency.

“All we want is a place to stay — something reasonable that we can afford,” Rod said. “Someone give us a shot. Let us rent something.”

Rod had found a trailer to possibly rent, but the landlady did not want to work with FEMA. FEMA pays the money — up to $463 a month — directly to the landlord. It’s up to the Saavedras to pay any difference, and they said they can afford to pay extra with the monthly disability checks that both Rod and Susan receive.

For the trailer that they got turned down for, Rod said they would have had to pay an extra $136 a month, which he and his wife could afford.

However, right now they have exhausted their funds getting here and are waiting for their disability checks to come in to put a down payment on a home.

Because Rod has five dogs, each of which survived the hurricane with him, he cannot find an apartment, so he is looking for a house or mobile home to rent.

“We’re willing to do repairs. We just need a place to live,” Susan said.

Moving in would be Rod, Susan, Rod’s sister and the five dogs that he is unwilling to give up.

Rod’s sister lives with the couple to help take care of both of them because each was diagnosed with illnesses after Hurricane Katrina. Rod has skin infections all over his body from being stuck in the water. Susan was diagnosed with emphysema.

“There’s times when I can barely move,” Rod said, which makes him unable to work.

While most people in Gallup did not survive Hurricane Katrina, the situation that the Saavadras find themselves in is not unusual in this town.

“This happens a lot and people fall through the cracks,” Betsy Windisch of the First United Methodist Church said.

Windisch helped to act as a liaison to the Saavadras by getting them in touch with local resources to help them out as they seek housing.

“Unfortunately so many people come through this town and they don’t get the help they need,” she said.

“In this town, things aren’t easy,” she said. While Windisch was able to give the Saavadras a list of low-income housing in the area, they must contact each entity separately, which she says isn’t the case in other towns where such information is centralized and available with one phone call.

“We don’t realize what other people go through when they are trying to find services,” she said. “Resources in this town are limited.”

Windisch said that working in a church she sees this type of problem all the time. The church has an angel fund to help people out who have exhausted all possibilities. In the past, the angel fund could help someone pay rent or electricity. With all the people seeking assistance these days, the church is only able to help out with small amounts now.

“There’s so many people living on the edge,” Windisch said.

She added that the pastor encouraged the Saavadras to move on to a larger city where they might be able to tap into more resources.

But the Saavadras said they have fallen in love with Gallup and intend to stay.

“There is history here. I love this place. I truly do,” Rod said.

So for now, the Saavadras are making do with their motel room, which the Red Cross has paid for until Tuesday.

“I’m tired of moving around ... We feel we can make it here,” Rod said.