Published: September 04, 2008 11:51 am            

Going home after Gustav

When Jessica Vazquez of DeRidder, La., saw the predicted path of Hurricane Gustav, she knew the time had come to leave her home — again.

Gustav is the second hurricane Vazquez and her family have fled in the past three years, but this journey was very different from the flight from Hurricane Rita three years ago, and had a much happier ending.

Vazquez has ties to the Duncan and Waurika area, so she knew where to come. As Jessica Thomas, she attended school in Waurika from the seventh through the ninth grades. Her sister, Jennifer Thomas, is a 1989 Waurika High School graduate. The sisters have uncles — John Swift in Waurika and Mel Swift in Duncan — who are glad to provide shelter in a storm.

Vazquez and her father, John Thomas, gathered up Vazquez’ son, Jeffrey, 3, and daughter, Juliana, 6 months, threw a few clothes and other necessities in their car and headed out of DeRidder at 11 p.m. Friday.

They drove through the night, stopping only to feed the baby and allow Jeffrey to stretch his legs, and arrived in Waurika at 8 a.m. Saturday, tired but safe.

After a rest, they made a stop at a Duncan thrift store to purchase toys to replace those Jeffrey had had to leave behind.

“There wasn’t a lot of traffic on the road. We’d see other cars with Louisiana license plates, or people wearing Saints shirts, but things were pretty orderly where we were,” Vazquez said.

“Stations in DeRidder were already running out of gas when we left, though,” John Thomas said.

The family kept the TV on the Weather Channel all day Monday, watching what was happening at home. A friend stayed in their house for security, and he was able to sweep the rain water away when it collected and keep an eye out for damage, Vazquez said. Although cell phone service was still sketchy on Tuesday, enough text messages were getting through that she knew that her house was safe and still had electricity, although half of DeRidder was without power and many homes had roof damage. DeRidder is about 200 miles northwest of New Orleans.

Vazquez’ husband, Sgt. Luis Vazquez, wasn’t part of the odyssey, as he had left home four months ago — for an assignment in Afghanistan. He won’t be home for another 11 months. The couple communicates mostly by computer, which became almost impossible as the storm approached and the family prepared to come to Oklahoma. As of Tuesday afternoon, Luis Vazquez still not heard directly from his wife since she left DeRidder Friday evening.

“He knows me well enough to know that I didn’t stick around, that I’d get the kids to safety,” Jessica Vazquez said. “He will know we’re OK, and friends who can e-mail him will let him know for sure.

“It wasn’t a matter of if, but when, we would come to Oklahoma. I’d do it again if there was another storm right behind Gustav. Houses are replaceable. My children aren’t. After each storm, a lot of people in Louisiana say, ‘it wasn’t so bad this time, so next time, I’ll stay,’ but that’s not my reasoning. I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” Vazquez said.

The family’s first flight to Oklahoma three years ago, after Hurricane Rita, was a different, and tragic, story.

“We waited too late to leave that time. Rita hit on Sept. 24 and I grabbed my kids, Jeffrey, who was 7 months old, and my daughter, Jacqueline, who was 2, and my sister’s four kids, and we piled in the car in complete darkness at 1 a.m. Sept. 25 and headed this way. We had lost electricity in DeRidder and it was hot and miserable. There was no air conditioning or refrigeration and I hadn’t slept for several days. If it is so hot at 1 a.m. that the kids cry, you can’t imagine what it’s like at 3 in the afternoon.

“Jacqueline got sick, and we stopped en route at a hospital emergency room. They told me she had a viral infection and gave her medication. We had to keep going — there was nothing else we could do — so we kept driving. As soon as we got into Waurika, we took her to the emergency room at the hospital there, but she died that night,” Vazquez said.

It was a very difficult time for the family as they stayed in Waurika and Duncan for two to three weeks while an autopsy was conducted on Jacqueline and she was cremated, but the communities pulled together and offered what comfort they could, the still-grieving mom said.

“I wasn’t going to leave without my daughter. The first thing I had to do when we got back to Louisiana was start planning her funeral.

“I had moved to Louisiana to begin with because Fort Polk was my first duty station when I went on active duty with the Army. Although people may wonder why we stay now with the storms and all, it’s because we have ties there. That’s where we buried our daughter. We’ll always have that tie and we never want to leave,” she said.

Although the family will always mourn the loss of Jacqueline, the birth of baby Juliana, who was conceived through in-vitro fertilization (Vazquez had had her Fallopian tubes tied a couple of months before Jacqueline died) has brought renewed joy to their home and given Jeffrey a much-loved little sister. Vazquez’ father worked for 30 years in the Fire Department in Emporia, Kan., but sees a different mindset in the people of Louisiana.

“We worked fires and emergencies, but we don’t know squat about dealing with hurricanes. The people of Louisiana know how to evacuate when they need to. It’s pretty impressive,” he said.

The family has had its contingency plan in place for years.

“They should have come like they did,” Mel Swift said.

“It’s stupid to put yourself in jeopardy. Don’t say, ‘I’m gonna be lucky this time.’ Two or three days of inconvenience aren’t worth risking your life for. For the life of me, I don’t understand why people down there take their chances and stay if they don’t have to.”

Vazquez said she considers herself blessed to have family in Oklahoma that is willing to welcome her and her children with open arms.

In addition to the uncles in the Duncan area, she has a cousin in Oklahoma City and an aunt in Enid.

“We were a little crowded here, but they brought the guitars out and played and we had an impromptu family get-together that we would not have had if it had not been for the hurricane,” Vazquez said.

Tuesday evening, the family headed back to Louisiana, where Vazquez, now a civilian, works in the Claims Department at Fort Polk. They know that there are other tropical storms on the horizon, that the hurricane season still has another couple of months to run, but they also know that they have safe ports in Duncan and Waurika, should the need arise again, and loving family to provide shelter and comfort in time of need.

“I am blessed,” Vazquez said.

Note: Vazquez confirmed by telephone Wednesday afternoon that they made it home OK and that their home still stands unscathed.

        

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