Leslie Miles
Katrina survivor displaced in Philly
New Orleans, LA
My name is Leslie Miles, I am a Katrina survivor and I am a native Philadelphian.
I moved to New Orleans about 7 years ago. I had a job within a week, my profession is nursing and I met some people who recommended me to a couple who I worked for up until the hurricane disaster. I worked for them for 7 years as a part-time duty nurse and basically built my whole life there all over again very easily.
When we had the notice to evacuate because we were expecting a hurricane I, like most New Orleans people, didn't take it seriously. We thought we could just ride it out and then as it got closer the president declared it a national disaster and for everyone to evacuate. Well that to me was sort of confusing because those who had cars and had places to go really started moving out. I really didn't take it that seriously until like the day before.
I went to the convention center and during that time that's when everything came and then we realized we had to evacuate from there to the Super Dome.
“I was there to witness the roof pealing off the Super Dome and the debris and rain and all was pouring inside and basically we realized we were really in trouble, but trouble without help...”
The impact of what was really going on, for everyone, was getting mind-boggling. We just thought this would be a bad storm but nothing that will place us in the position where we realize we are helpless and hopeless. So during the time the storm was taking place I was there to witness the roof pealing off the Super Dome and the debris and rain and all was pouring inside and basically we realized we were really in trouble, but trouble without help.
For me it felt like someone should be coming, someone should be making some decisions to rescue us and try to figure out how to do this and how we were going to manage because everything and everybody was not really able to make sense of what was taking place.
During that time I was going to the ladies restroom and I never made it inside because from behind me someone grabbed me by the neck and covered my mouth and it was three young men, I could hear their voices. They pulled me from the ladies room doorway into a room not far from there, which was very dark and I couldn't see any faces and they started to sexually assault me. I remember fighting and biting and trying to get away and protect myself as best I could and the brutal beating I started to endure from these 3 young men was quite terrifying. My mouth was bleeding, my teeth were loose, they were punching mainly in my face because I kept trying to bite them and then they were choking me and I don't know for what period of time, it seemed to go on and on and on and finally someone, a man who was going in that direction, heard the attack and he somehow managed to break open the door and came in to start fighting them off of me. He grabbed me and just said "start running." He had to get his two sons and his wife because he had found a truck outside alongside the Super Dome. He grabbed his wife and his children and we just started running and we ran out to where this truck was which was full of gas. We got in his truck and just started driving and where we wound up was North Carolina.
When we got to North Carolina I recall him asking me for a family member's name, anyone he could contact. I did give him the name of a very best girlfriend of mine who lives here in Philadelphia. I recall her flying down to North Carolina and we left and she brought me back here. During that time I was hospitalized for almost two weeks.
From there they made connections with Project Brotherly Love. A social worker at the hospital had contacted Wannamaker's school and I went from the hospital to there. They set up my operation for me. There were well over maybe 200 people there. But due to my condition and the assault they placed me in a hotel. From there I started recovering from my injuries and I had to have surgery to remove broken teeth and gums that were torn away from my teeth. So for two months at a time, because I had to have surgery twice, I started going to a social worker and Red Cross started coming in to take me to Wannamaker's school to talk to people about food and permanent housing and I had nothing. So the Salvation Army and churches nearby were donating clothes and food and things for us there.
I stayed at the Holiday Inn for 4 months until they could find housing for me. The Wannamaker's school had to place people because the school could no longer accommodate the processing of us arriving here because Philadelphia had enough housing programs for everyone to be placed by the deadline, but it wasn't so.
Some people had to be relocated to other hotels until they got placed. Social security, every social agency that needed to be in place for us was there, but we ran into a lot of red tape with FEMA issuing money so that we could have money. In the hotels my meals weren't included. So for me, in order to eat I had to travel back and forth to the Wannamaker's school to have meals and once that was no longer in existence basically I found myself fending and trying to find resourceful things for myself.
FEMA came back into the picture and they were the ones distributing the resources out there to everyone, but there was so much red tape and long periods of time waiting for responses for even housing assistance. Some places you had to have deposits. I didn't, which was good because I didn't receive any money from FEMA for anything until January.
So I went four months without any assistance. I was awarded food stamps from the public welfare system, but such a minimal amount for a long period of time. Once a month, I was only receiving $123 food allowance. $123 for one person to try to live off for food for a month is just not possible. Especially because I was on a special diet because I couldn't eat regular food for a while so it was really difficult trying to just get meals.
Red Cross and Salvation Army were limited in what they could contribute for food and clothing. I had no clothing and that's when the anger really started setting in for me. We were treated worse than the aid sent to other countries to care for, clothe, and feed other countries and here we are in our country and I felt we were being betrayed. We were actually suffering and were treated as though we weren't human beings, in our own country.
I find that still to this day very hard to accept that this country could not prepare properly for us to even leave Louisiana to be placed somewhere else, as human beings. Still to this day I have trouble trying to get resources for my needs; for therapy and medication. I go to a pharmacist who says "I can't fill that prescription because your health plan won't pay for it."
Why are we suffering from hunger, homelessness, no support system set up? My life will never be the same and my family has suffered watching me suffer and still I can't go to the pharmacist and get the medication that I need because of the money.
As a taxpayer, I worked all my life and I shouldn't have to beg the government for anything. I think I'm entitled to decency, I don't think I should have to beg and scramble for what happened to me. Days and days without water, without sanitation and in America.