EVERETT – An Everett woman with dozens of family members in the path of Hurricane Katrina was scheduled to take off this morning on a desperate search to find them.
Margaret Washington, 43, who lost one son to a shooting in New Orleans 11 months ago, is fearful that a natural disaster has eroded her family further.
She’s heard from only one of her seven brothers and neither of her two sisters since the hurricane lashed the Gulf Coast earlier this week. She doesn’t know if her mother, who is diabetic and being treated for cancer, was able to escape the storm.
What she does know is that her two sons are safe in a shelter in Baton Rouge, although son Cory Lawrence and his fiance became separated from their four children during a Coast Guard helicopter rescue from the roof of their house.
Still up in the air is the fate of more than two dozen nieces and nephews in the New Orleans area.
“I have to go down,” Washington said Wednesday. “I’m going to the shelters and look for my loved ones.”
The shooting death of son Tyron Lawrence last October brought her even closer to her remaining sons, she said, and that’s one reason she’s going.
The New Orleans native plans to leave with friend Joy Promise of Everett on a flight to Houston. She intends to rent a car, drive to Baton Rouge and find her sons.
From there, she and Promise plan to walk around with an eraser board and her name on it, hoping to attract the attention of family members in as many shelters as they can reach in two weeks.
The pair also will travel to Greenville, Miss., where Washington’s mother intended to travel as the storm approached.
Washington is frustrated by the lack of communication. Phone lines are jammed, and she suspects cell towers are either damaged or overloaded.
She and Promise say it will be tough, with the heat and gasoline prices rising quickly. There will be places where police or the National Guard will prevent her from going. And some places are dangerous, with gangs, looting and disorder.
In a phone conversation Wednesday with son Lawrence, Washington promised the 25-year-old she would come to him. She also hopes a friendly face and an encouraging word from someone outside will lift the spirits of all the refugees.
Promise said she will take along teddy bears to bring a smile to children, and the women’s church – the Word of Life Church of Lynnwood – will dispatch some toiletry items to be distributed.
Washington is haunted by one phone call with a sister during the storm. The New Orleans woman and her husband were riding out the hurricane in their home. She had gas, but the power was gone.
“The water was coming up, and she started to cry,” Washington said. “She was saying it was getting worse.”
If there’s a message Washington wants to send to her relatives, it’s to not give up.
“We need prayers,” she said. “The state of Louisiana needs prayers.”
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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