Evacuee receives wonderful present

RACHEL E. LEONARD, Staff Writer

UNION -- Union Chamber of Commerce Director Torance Inman was waiting for Tynisha Baylor as her plane from Houston landed late Wednesday at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport. In his hand was a small present for the New Orleans evacuee: a key imprinted with the red, white and blue of the U.S. flag.

"This is the key to your apartment," Inman said. "Only in America."

It took a second for his words to sink in. Then Baylor smiled.

"I got something I can actually call my own again," said Baylor, who only minutes beforehand

had been re-united with her 2-year-old son, Dylan.

The Baylors are the fifth family to have a new home of their own through Union County's Hurricane Hospitality effort. With Hurricane Katrina behind them, the families now face a new challenge: how to rebuild their metropolitan lives in small town South Carolina, at least for now.

New arrivals

Baylor's apartment key rested Thursday evening on her end table, next to soda cans, a jar of pickles and a plate of macaroni and cheese. Her journey to Union went through half a dozen states.

Baylor sent Dylan away with family members who evacuated while she stayed in New Orleans with her 16-month-old daughter, Jalayah. She stayed at a cousin's house during the storm and on Wednesday was picked up in a boat and taken through flooded streets and fast burning buildings to the New Orleans Convention Center.

She was there only 15 minutes when the shooting began. One man ran out of the center and was shot in the head, she said. A baby was trampled in the ensuing stampede.

"They said the momma was picking up the baby, cradling the baby, but the baby was dead," Baylor said.

Baylor and Jalayah slept in the bushes outside. Inside, she heard stories of a two girls, ages 7 and 13, who were raped. A woman gave birth to a child inside the center, but the child died two days later.

"Everything that you've heard, that stuff is true," Baylor said of media accounts of violence and death inside the center. Bodies, she said, were lying in the street.

On Saturday, she was finally able to board a bus that took her to Arkansas. She found shelter for two days at Fort Smith when she made contact with Vicki Morgan, Hurricane Hospitality chairwoman, and her family.

Arriving on the same plane with Baylor Wednesday night was Melvin Nelson, whose wife, Terri, her two sons and Terri's mother moved into a Jonesville home last week.

Melvin Nelson decided he'd wait out the storm at home. After the levees broke, he had to escape the building where he had taken shelter.

"The water started rising up," he said. "I busted my way up through the loft."

He swam to dry land, where a helicopter rescued him. He was placed on a plane to San Antonio, where he and his family eventually were able to contact each other via cell phone.

A new life

Nelson was reunited with his wife early Thursday morning. She couldn't be at the airport because the family was at Clemson University, where her 20-year-old son, Bobby, enrolled when the hurricane interrupted his semester studying architecture at Tulane University. His brother, Brad, 16, has enrolled at Jonesville High School.

Antoinette Miller, whose family has been provided with an apartment in Union, has already found a friend in a woman named Riva Jones, whose cousin manages the apartments where Miller is living and fell in love with Miller's youngest daughter, 3-month-old Kaliala.

"We've been inseparable ever since," Miller said Thursday, as Jones stopped to visit.

Miller's boyfriend, Felton Hingle, spent Thursday evening playing football with Union Councilwoman Fran Bailey. Both hope to find jobs in the area and are getting used to the new environment.

"Everything is laid back and quiet and just peaceful, but we're still learning it," Miller said. "It's a little difficult because you get a little homesick sometimes."

Miller loves Union's parks but misses eating gumbo spiced with file. Her family members are scattered across the South but plan to move to California, where her uncle owns a home. Miller plans to stay in Union for now but doesn't know what her future holds.

Next door to Miller is evacuee Shirley Cole, who's still getting used to the small-town atmosphere.

"It's definitely small," she said. "It's a big change."

One day, Cole plans to return to New Orleans. She's convinced the city will be rebuilt.

"It's my hometown, and I love my hometown," she said.

Cole's oldest daughter, 19-year-old Nakeisha, has enrolled at USC Upstate. Jainiqua, 12, is attending Excelsior Middle School. Students are full of questions about her and New Orleans. She can't answer them all.

"One girl said, 'Your house was under water?' I just walked away because I really didn't want to answer the question," Jainiqua said.

The question reminded her of seeing television images of her own neighborhood under water. She was too sad to answer, she said.

Miller's 11-year-old daughter, Tonisha, is busy exploring her new town with her new best friend, the daughter of Union Salvation Army Capt. Gene Harrell Jr. The two spent Thursday evening at a Hurricane Hospitality event in downtown Union to raise funds for the families.

Union Mayor Bruce Morgan, husband of Vicki Morgan, said Tonisha learned a physics lesson while looking at cars parked along a hill by the county courthouse.

"She said, 'What's keeping them from rolling?' Because she's so used to everything being flat," he said.

Support flows in

Hurricane Hospitality leaders are seeking some items and especially monetary donations for the five families now living in Union through the charity of others. The families still need small household items, and funding is a growing concern, Vicki Morgan said.

Rent, utilities and airfare are expensive, and the program hopes to bring in more families. Two rescue squads from North Carolina recently contacted Vicki Morgan, asking how they could help. The Dance Academy in Union has offered two months of free lessons for Tonisha and Jainiqua.

"They're making them part of the community," she said.

Rachel Leonard can be reached at 562-7230, or

rachel.leonard@shj.com.