A Wal-Mart employee and her children and grandchildren returned home after Hurricane Gustav to find they have no place to live. While other families in the area wait for simple things like power, this family is waiting to find a new place to call home.
Carolyn Simmons Smith, of 194 J.B. Green Road in Des Allemands, wants her home and her life back.
“I came back home and I was hurt and devastated,” she said. “I own the trailer, but with the high cost of living, I couldn’t afford to keep insurance on it.”
The family is now living in Raceland with a relative until they can find another place to stay.
“I’m afraid of Hurricane Ike,” she said. “I can’t believe we might have to go through this all over again and we already have nothing left.”
Smith says the family is in need of clothes. Right now she’s hoping someone will offer them a place to live.
“Until then, I’ll have to drive back and forth between here and Raceland to get my son to school and that’s going to be difficult with gas prices being so expensive.”
The family has made contact with FEMA but says that the government agency can’t help them until they’ve located a place to live.
“Where do you start to look?” Smith said. “I don’t know even where to begin.”
The Smith family knows about the importance of evacuating because they live in a mobile home park. Smith recommends that even if the evacuations happen back to back, residents need to leave.
“Don’t stay,” she said. “Get out as fast as you can. Look what could’ve happened to us if we hadn’t listened and left when the parish officials told us to.”
Social Concerns, the St. Charles Parish agency located in Luling, can assist families in this situation with clothing needs and other items.
“I know we have to start all over again,” she said. “Thank God my grandchildren that live with me are really young and don’t understand what’s going on.”
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