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| Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
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Trio finds haven in Jackson County
Published September 6, 2005
Displaced, discouraged but not defeated.
That phrase would aptly describe three close friends relocated from New Orleans to Jackson County in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the category four storm that left most of the Crescent City without essential services and partially under water.
Jeremy Campbell and the husband and wife team of Starbuck and Lori Grider Laney have found refuge with family. They agree if you’ve got to seek a safe haven there’s no place like home.
“So far it’s not too bad,” Lori, a native of Scottsboro and a 1995 graduate of SHS, said. “It seems like a long weekend at home.”
The trio of friends aren’t unique. They are among the hundreds of thousands of people from the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast displaced by the monster storm that struck last Monday.
“The people you see on the television screen aren’t refugees. They’re Americans. They pay taxes and go to church,” Campbell said.
Campbell, a 1994 SHS graduate, is the son of David and Carol Campbell. Laney is the daughter of Michael and Glenda Grider. Her husband is a native of Houston, Texas.
All are in agreement that New Orleans was special and will be again. They speak almost as one having been so close for so long.
“We love New Orleans,” Lori said. “It’s who we were.”
New Orleans will return, the trio agrees. It won’t be the same but it will be rebuilt.
“New Orleans lost so much. It will come back threefold. It will rebuild,” Lori said.
And some of those being seen on television now aren’t representative of the average New Orleans resident.
“The violence you see is only a small portion of a desperate crowd,” Campbell, a producer for the ABC television affiliate in New Orleans said. “It catches the eye of the television camera. The story screams and you can’t ignore it.”
Lori describes the current situation in the city as “desperate, terrible, horrible. It’s a very, very small portion.”
Starbuck put it in perspective.
“The television cameras pass by thousands of people sitting peacefully. There is no comparison between them and the looters.”
While Campbell knows he will have a job to return to the Laney’s story is different. They own an independent clothing store, Metro Three, in the historic shopping district.
Metro Three features mainly designs by Starbuck and Lori. The Laney’s line of t-shirts and other apparel has a distinctive New Orleans flavor.
The week before Katrina hit the Laneys were introducing a new line of children’s clothing at the market in Atlanta. Campbell was there to assist them with marketing and sales. On Friday they realized Katrina was in the Gulf of Mexico and likely would make its way to New Orleans.
Starbuck and Lori left for New Orleans late Friday. They secured their store, grabbed their two cats, some clothing and odds and ends. They did the same at Campbell’s apartment early Saturday morning before returning to Atlanta to wind up the show.
They watched Katrina Sunday into Monday from an Atlanta hotel. As the storm moved past the area “we decided the crisis had been averted since we knew we were on high ground,” Lori said.
Things changed Tuesday morning when they saw on television that a portion of the levee system protecting their city from rising water had broken. Their buoyant attitude was replaced by a helpless feeling.
At that point Campbell said the stakes changed.
“Our high is that maybe we get to keep the lives we used to have.”
Campbell will get to go back to his job once the station, whose transmitter site is under flood water, is operable again. For now he sits, watches and waits as a few of his colleagues work from an ABC affiliate in Baton Rogue.
The Laneys, uncertain of when they will get to return to the city they love, will locate their business elsewhere. They have to because as retailers they don’t get a payday unless they are selling their products. When they can get back they’ll work to reopen a New Orleans store and will spend time traveling between the two.
“The last thing on my mind is what we lost,” Starbuck said.
Don’t feel sorry for Jeremy, Starbuck and Lori. They don’t want that, having already turned their eyes toward, what for the time being is, an uncertain future, confident that things will work out. And their immediate focus is on doing what they can to help the recovery efforts.
“We still feel for the people,” Lori said. “I feel helpless that I can’t help my neighbors and friends.”
“My sadness and personal sorrow is so tiny. This eclipses anything I could ever feel for myself,” Campbell said. “Our plea is for people to help in any way they can.”
The trio, who seemingly thinks and at times speak as one, agreed that people in North Alabama can help those in New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast in more ways than one. Each wholeheartedly encouraged monetary donations, when possible, to the Red Cross or other organizations and positive thoughts and attitudes about rebuilding not only the infrastructure but the very culture of the city as well.
“New Orleans could use lots of prayers,” Lori said.
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