Making Best of It

ABBEVILLE — In Room 104 of the Budget Inn here, a large blue and gold macaw named Love sulks in its cage most days uttering expletives about the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Cooped up in a motel room for weeks, the bird has lost patience with just about everything, its owner says.

Love’s owner, Rebecca Hammons, 58, was among the scores of Delcambre and Erath residents left with nowhere to go after Hurricane Ike. For the past several months, the Budget Inn — one of at least two motels in town still housing the storm’s refugees — has been home.

So far, FEMA has footed the bill while additional aid is processed. Many are waiting on compensatory checks for their devastated homes. They rely, for the most part, on food and can goods from local food pantries.

Their plight underscores the lingering impact of hurricanes Ike and Gustav: nearly four months after the floodwaters have receded, many are still stranded, waiting on the government to help them get back on their feet.

It’s a life of uncertainty for Hammons and the some 15 other occupants here riding out the storm Ike left behind. Every two weeks, they nervously await word that they’ve received an extension to stay longer.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do. It’s pure hell here,” Hammons said standing outside her room holding two of her seven Chinese crested hairless dogs. The hotel’s manager, Shany Patel, allows Hammons to keep several animals in the room, and others stay outside in a cage.

“If it weren’t for these little guys, I’d have gone crazy a long time ago,” she said. “I depend on them and they depend on me.”

For some of the hotel’s occupants, this marks the second extended stay in a hotel prompted by a hurricane. Elta Wilson, who lived in Erath before she lost her home to Ike, said she spent more than a year and a half in a motel here after Hurricane Rita struck about three years ago.

As many were impacted by both storms, they say they’ve noticed a marked difference in the time and effort it’s taken to get aid this time around.

“It’s like they really want to make sure you need it this time,” said Gene Bodin of Delcambre. “They’re not helping like they did for Rita. I think they overdid it for Rita.”

For all her frustration, Hammons says her life could hardly get any worse. She lost everything in Ike. Her home was rendered uninhabitable, her car undrivable. Many of her animals died as well. She estimates her net loss to be around $170,000.

“This is what I looked like in July,” Hammons said, pointing to the picture of a much younger-looking woman she keeps in her room. “This is what Ike has done to me. I’ve only got three changes of clothing to my name.”

But amid the struggle, Hammons has grown close to many of her neighbors staying at the motel with her. Although they were all strangers in September, the occupants at Budget Inn have formed something of a family. At night they sit outside in lawn chairs smoking and telling stories. They play dominos and cook together.

“We’re family now,” said Donna Choate, a displaced Abbeville resident. “We do everything together.”

The group has also forged an unlikely friendship with Patel. Wilson says Patel has been more than helpful during the group’s stay, offering not just assistance but camaraderie.

“He’s been great,” Hammons said. “If we need anything, he gets it for us. And he’ll come outside and hang out with us, too.”

If one of the refugees needs an extra day before hearing from FEMA about an extension, Patel grants it.

“I want to help all the people,” he said in an interview last fall. “I can treat them all as a family member.”

But like any family, it hasn’t been free of drama and bickering, Hammons said.

Hammons said she is no longer on speaking terms with some of her neighbors and is preparing to file theft charges against one of them.

“I’m the bad guy now,” she said, another phrase Love is likely to start repeating.