Bierria tries to track down family, friends in Louisiana

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, August 30, 2005

KIRKLAND – While the preseason has reached a point where attention spans get short, at least one member of the Seattle Seahawks has a good excuse for letting his mind wander.

Safety Terreal Bierria, who was raised outside of New Orleans in Slidell, La., spent the past two days worrying about friends and relatives affected by Hurricane Katrina.

“It puts everything in perspective,” Bierria said after practice Tuesday. “This is just a game, and that’s my family and my home that has been destroyed. My heart goes out to all the families out there that have to deal with the loss of their loved ones from this storm.”

Bierria missed Monday’s practice while trying to track down his immediate family on the telephone. He talked to his mother, who was in a shelter in Shreveport, La., with Terreal’s daughter and grandmother, but he had yet to hear from his father or brother as of Tuesday afternoon.

“With the power outage and the phones not working now, it’s kind of tough,” Bierria said. “I thank God for people like the Red Cross, the army and all the people there helping. It’s an unfortunate situation. We have a lot of uncertainty right now.”

Bierria’s stepfather recently underwent surgery for a kidney stone, but he was safe from the storm in a medical facility in Shreveport.

Bierria’s offseason house, which he purchased after signing his first contract in 2002, might not be so lucky. The town of Slidell took a direct hit from the hurricane, so Bierria doesn’t expect it to have survived.

“As long as my family’s OK,” he said, “that material stuff will work itself out.”