Fifty-Eight Days in the Cajundome Shelter

By Ann B. Dobie

"Dobie highlights impromptu family formations as she examines the factors that cause some people to take charge and lead in desperate times and others to sink to predation."
--Booklist

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed thousands of homes, schools, and businesses across the Gulf Coast and changed the face of southeast Louisiana forever. However, nearly a hundred miles northwest of New Orleans, in Lafayette, Louisiana, a different story was unfolding. As men, women, and children waited on their roofs for rescue, executive director Greg Davis hurried to prepare the Cajundome in Lafayette as an emergency shelter.

The workers and volunteers in the Cajundome provided food, showers, and medical care to more than eighteen thousand evacuees that came to Lafayette. From the first busloads of newly homeless to the disasters caused by Hurricane Rita, Fifty-Eight Days in the Cajundome Shelter shares personal accounts of heartache and joy, tragedy and triumph. For the first time, here is a collection of the stories of the volunteers and evacuees. Their heroism, courage, and despair are etched into these stories as they endured the first few weeks in a hurricane-ravaged world.

Retold here is the bravery and leadership of Donald Williams as he took charge and led a convoy of handicapped and elderly to safety. Readers will also be captivated by the unforgettable story of the Prevost family as they climbed their way to the roof of their home and their heartbreaking journey to dry land on I-10. The author includes her own personal accounts of what really happened in the aftermath of Katrina and the bravery and selflessness of countless people who struggled to make a difference.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ann B. Dobie is a retired professor emerita of English from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She holds a doctorate in education from Columbia University and is the author of several educational books. Dobie is a member of the Acadiana Council of Teachers of English and serves as state coordinator of the Louisiana Writing Project. She has also worked as a consultant to the National Writing Project. She lives in Lafayette, Louisiana.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1589805798
• ISBN13: 9781589805798
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

I was there, too!

Excellent review - I was at the Cajundome as a volunteer, and it was truly amazing to see how this small city was run so smoothly. It was really interesting to read some of the behind-the-scenes information, the results of which were part of my experience. I remember the Red Cross people pretty much stayed in their air conditioned quarters, staying cool. They would come out occasionally, clean and fresh, with their clipboards, to the outside area where we volunteers were working tirelessly sorting contributions in the searing heat, and say "good job!" and go back into their isolated area. How patronizing! I worked on the meal service, too, sometimes - it was truly amazing how that amount of people could be fed GOOD FOOD, so quickly and courteously! Lafayette truly rose to the occasion without red tape or fuss. Volunteers came from all over the country, at their own expense and without being asked. Once there, it was up to everyone to make up his or her own job and get things done. It was an incredible experience and I thought this book gave a really nice picture of it, at least from one who was there.

Acadiana responds to disaster

While world-wide attention was given to the many Katrina horror stories that took place in the Superdome and Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, little notice was taken of a very different story that occurred in the Cajundome of Lafayette, also filled with a multitude the storm displaced. The Cajundome, in fact, had to cope with a double whammy when days after Katrina struck, Hurricane Rita pummeled the western Louisiana coast sending yet more refugees to the facility. The staff of the Cajundome and volunteers, many of them descendants of the refugees of the Acadian Diaspora of 1755, on the whole welcomed the 21st century refugees with empathy, kindness, efficiency, and ingenuity. This is the story that Ann B. Dobie tells in her lucid, well-written, and moving chronicle of the 58 days in 2005 during which the Cajundome was used as a shelter. There are villains also in this story, but the overwhelming emphasis of the book is on the success of the effort to provide shelter and comfort to those made homeless by the two disasters, when the Cajundome staff and the many volunteers treated those fleeing the storms more like guests than intruders. There is much to be learned from this book. It should be required reading for all those involved in disaster planning. The book also amply illustrates the qualities of the people of Acadian Louisiana who have long made it a good and human place to live. I recommend this book very highly.