Evacuees say extent of help has been mixed

Although grateful for residents' help, some are dissatisfied with agencies.
By JEANNE STARMACK
and WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
As life ever so slowly returns to normal in New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss., after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, storm victims who fled to the Mahoning Valley also are starting to rebuild their lives, thanks to the generosity and love shown by area residents.
Laurie Miller and her daughter, who have been living at Laurie's mother's house in Cornersburg since the hurricane ripped up their homes in Mississippi, are getting ready to send thank-you cards.
Miller was going to send them to businesses, churches, the Salvation Army, an eye doctor in Boardman, and others who responded to her need for help after she arrived here with not much left from her life.
She had no clothes, no job, no access to her money and not even the pair of glasses she'd left behind in the hurry to leave her home in Biloxi as Katrina menaced the Gulf Coast.
She had her contact lenses, but in the days after the storm, one of them ripped. As if her situation weren't disorienting enough, she couldn't see well.
She'd made phone calls, she said, to government agencies who didn't seem to know how to help her. But after making her plight public in The Vindicator, she found the help she needed.
Miller and her daughter, Kristy Mooneyham of Gulfport, Miss., fled their homes Aug. 28 as Katrina readied for its devastating landfall the next day. The two drove to Pensacola, Fla., where they waited out the monstrous storm with friends.
On Aug. 31, they were allowed back in to their Mississippi neighborhoods, where Mooneyham dropped off some supplies to her husband, a deputy sheriff who'd stayed behind because of his job. Mooneyham's house in Gulfport had wind and water damage but was still standing.
The drive to Miller's neighborhood in Biloxi, normally about a 20-minute drive from Gulfport, took two hours, Mooneyham said. And when they got to her mother's place along the beach, she said, the house simply wasn't there.
They came to the Youngstown area with four dogs and four cats to stay with Miller's mother, Marjorie Miller.
Laurie Miller said she knew that parts of the casino where she'd worked were still there. But her job no longer existed.
Undecided about returning
She said Wednesday she hasn't made up her mind whether she'll go back to Mississippi or try to resettle here.
Mooneyham, she said, is planning to go back, even though her house in Gulfport is no longer considered safe to live in because of a twisted main beam.
But whether the Youngstown area turns out to be a temporary stop for Miller or her new permanent home, she wants the community to know she's grateful for all the help it gave her and her daughter.
Angels for Animals donated food for the dogs and cats. Grooming Two, a pet-grooming business on Mahoning Avenue, donated dog food, cat food, cat litter and even some grooming.
St. Vincent DePaul, the Salvation Army and nurses from St. Elizabeth Health Center contributed clothes, and Meineke Muffler in Boardman fixed her car's exhaust system.
The Union Baptist Church in Youngstown gave $200 for shopping at Wal-Mart.
Liz Amicone of Austintown and her family donated money for Miller's new contact lenses, and Dr. Gerald Sevachko of Boardman made her some new glasses.
"So many have donated clothing, friendship and a shoulder to cry on," she said.
A different response
Some of the victims who came here, however, said they and their families are frustrated with governmental agencies who have them running from place to place looking for help.
"What we need now are cash and gas cards and a place to live," said Peggy Campo, who left her home about 30 miles south of Now Orleans just ahead of the storm.
Campo and her husband, Donald, a fisherman, left with $70 in cash and $100 on a credit card. The Campos are living in a motel, but other family members who fled Louisiana are staying with her stepdaughter, Dawnell Campo Link on Wesley Avenue on the city's West Side. All of them are eating at Link's home.
Campo said people have given them clothing and mattresses and nonperishable food in such quantities that they need a place to store the goods so they don't get ruined while they are being sorted.
She said the family, which is stressed out because of the situation and the number of people under one roof, really need some counseling to get through it.
Campo said that the Red Cross gave them vouchers for $75 worth of food and $135 for clothing when they first arrived, but that generally the agency response to their requests for help have been unorganized.
"We need a place to live so we can start to get some normalcy back in our lives. If I can get a home, then I'll be situated," she said.
Unhappy with agencies
Shanta D. Douglas, 33, of New Orleans, rode out Katrina, but afterward, afraid and tired of waiting for help, fled her apartment building and came to Youngstown to stay with her mother, Addier Douglas.
Like Campo, Douglas said she was grateful for the response of residents to her plight, but she also felt she was getting the runaround from agencies until a one-stop help site was established at the Salvation Army at 1501 Glenwood Ave.
Even then, during a visit to the site, where she had been led to believe all service agencies would be represented, she found representatives from only a handful of agencies.
"We lost everything, and now we have to jump through hoops to get help. It's not like we are scamming them," Douglas said.
A Help Hotline representative who worked at the Salvation Army one-stop site Tuesday said several agencies were represented, including Turning Point Counseling Services, Red Cross, Catholic Charities and the YWCA.