Ruby Campbell Statement on Katrina
October 28, 2005
When Katrina was upgraded to Category 5, I decided to take my parents and leave. They had been through Hurricane Camille and didn't want to go through another hurricane. There were no motel rooms anywhere near Biloxi; the closest empty rooms were in Gainesville, FL. We drove for 11 hours on the back roads to avoid the traffic on the interstates.
We returned to Biloxi on the Tuesday after the storm. My parents' house was destroyed. My sister's house was too. My house had flooded and a tree had fallen into it. It was like pulling teeth to get Nationwide Insurance to come out and see my property. I was told that there was no one assigned to my case. It was a month before the insurance adjuster came on October 7th. And I now have six people staying in my house. My parents are staying with one of my sisters; their entire house needs to be redone. They received a trailer, but my mother is in a wheelchair and the trailer is not accessible. FEMA won't bring a new one. FEMA said they can't provide trailers because they have no one to drive them into East Biloxi and there is still too much debris everywhere.
It took 3 or 4 days after the storm to get water; there were no lights, no gas and no place close to get supplies. Even after water was brought in, there was no way to get it as most people in East Biloxi, the black area, had lost everything, even their cars. East Biloxi was not receiving aid as quickly as the white areas. Rip Daniels, a radio DJ, talked about it on the radio, how the black areas were being underserved. This was a full week after the storm was over.
When the relief did come, FEMA and Red Cross were not announcing where they were. I didn't get to the Red Cross until two full weeks after the storm. Relief wasn't organized until weeks after the storm. Lines were long, old people even had to stand in them for hours, in terrible heat.
