Katrina refugee found home here
Community leaders recall the relief effort a decade later.
Linda and Spencer Cage don’t consider Hurricane Katrina a total disaster. The storm that slammed into the Louisiana and Mississippi coast on Aug. 29, 2005, forced them to leave New Orleans. “It was a blessing. I thank God for another day of being a survivor,” Linda Cage said.
Cage and her husband left their homes in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans and waded through chest high water to get to the convention center. They spent a couple of night on cots before boarding a bus bound for Atlanta.
Once the couple got to Atlanta, as holders of Section Eight housing vouchers, they got hooked up with Sandra Hudson, executive director of the Northwest Georgia Housing Authority, and were brought to Rome, where they have lived ever since.
“I was watching television coverage and it brought back so many emotions,” Linda Cage said. She said Katrina was no mistake because she believes she was ordained by God to come to Rome. She said she is frequently asked if she would ever go back to live in New Orleans and her answer is an emphatic no. “They have rebuilt New Orleans and it’s a blessing for my friends, but the crime and the economy is still the same,” Cage said.
Both Spencer and Linda Cage have been able to get work and have become involved in the community through Greater Mount Calvary Baptist Church, 445 E. 14th St.
How many people came to Rome to seek help after the storm?
“Oh my Lord, we had hundreds,” said Hudson. It’s hard to put a handle on an exact number but Hudson said the housing authority had people spread out across virtually every one of its housing developments.
Oftentimes it takes a major disaster to bring out the best in humanity. Rome put its best foot forward in a big way in the aftermath Katrina.
Churches took up special collections, ranging from cash to water, food, diapers and just about anything else people were willing to donate.
A special Rome Kares organization was created to serve as a clearinghouse for the local efforts to provide relief for victims of the hurricane.
“It came together so quickly,” said Ronnie Wallace who was Rome’s mayor at the time. “There was so much energy, so many people who wanted to help.” Wallace said that the organization was allowed to use the old Kroger, now the Goodwill center on Hicks Drive.
The community shipped numerous truckloads of goods to both Louisiana
and Mississippi over the course of several weeks following the storm.
Former Northwest Georgia U.S. Congressman Phil Gingrey even delivered brief remarks on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on Sept. 14, 2005, praising the Rome Kares organization.
“Rome Kares is a model of coordinated community response. The group has aided more than 100 families who have been temporarily relocated to
Rome, Georgia and Floyd County from Louisiana and Mississippi.
“It was pretty amazing how it all came together,” Wallace recalled. “There were so many volunteers separating clothing into children’s and adults sizes, others working outside loading trucks.”
Wallace said Rome Kares turned out to be the perfect name, cares spelled with a capital K for the storm that few would ever forget.