Quarreling through Katrina: A saga of survival

Dog in a kayak
While Sonny had his back turned, the inflatable he had intended for Colleen and the kids disappeared. Also missing was Bill, another from the party crowd, and his chow Cisco. When Sonny caught up with them across the way, the dog was alone in the boat.

“It makes me laugh today but at the time I was very angry at Bill,” says Sonny. “I come marching over there and I look in that kayak and he’s got that damn dog of his wrapped up ... and all there is that little nose sticking out. ... And I said ‘Bill, this is not for the dogs’ … and he’s telling me, ‘Now, Sonny, my boy (Cisco) can’t swim’.”

Sonny relented, and the boat bearing Cisco, with Bill swimming alongside, made up the third vessel in the makeshift flotilla. Colleen and the kids rode in the skiff with the non-swimmers and five dogs. Both boats tied up with the kayak carrying Carol, who was retching as she bobbed in the storm surge.

For some five hours, they battled the wind and water, which continued to rise until it was near the roofline of the hotel. And they continued to argue over the best course of action.

Sonny recalls that “Plan C” was tying up the flotilla to a massive live oak until the water receded. But a large tree limb had fallen onto the “tree of salvation,” and it had become too dangerous to remain.

Drifting toward disaster
Sonny cut them loose and admits he was out of plans. The flotilla started drifting toward the torrent on Highway 90 — a terrifying moment that the survivors now recall differently.

As Sonny remembers it, the others failed to understand the gravity of the situation if they were to be caught up in the storm surge. He recalls swimming for their lives — one-armed, in 10-12 feet of water, with the bow line to the flotilla in his teeth — trying to reach a nearby restaurant that might provide a solid anchor.

John Brecher / MSNBC.com Buster, one of six dogs who rode out the hurricane at the Texan Motel. He belongs to Robert Abadie and Colleen Saurage.

"While we’re drifting out towards our certain death, they’re singing, ‘Row, row, row your boat,’” Sonny recalls. "I was in a real panic, and they weren’t, and that was upsetting me, especially when I needed help getting this flotilla over to that restaurant."

The Cupps, however, say that Sonny wanted to take the boats out on the highway and "go with the stream" but that they rejected the idea.

"That's the worst idea in the world," says Michael. "Got a lot better chance of surviving if you can hang onto something … than getting into the middle of a stream that’s moving 30, 40, 50 miles an hour. You never know where you’re going to wind up at."

Robert and Sonny eventually maneuvered the boats to the restaurant, helped by a lull in the wind. There, the group remained lodged in what Sonny describes as a "wind trap" on the lee side, clinging to eaves and drain pipes until the waters receded.

Aftermath of an ordeal
Robert Abadie, Colleen Saurage, Richard and Aaron and their dog Buster camped in the parking lot of the Texan Motel for nearly two months before moving to Florida to escape the heat and flies of the disaster zone. When they returned to Waveland in December, they managed to get a FEMA trailer, which they now occupy on an empty lot in Bay St. Louis. Colleen and Robert are doing yard clean-up and landscaping. She is expecting their third child.

The Cupps left Waveland a week after the storm and lived for a time with relatives. They were unable to get a FEMA trailer but have rented a trailer on the lot with Robert and Colleen, which they share with two of their dogs. Their third dog, a chow, died after the storm. Michael resumed work as an auto mechanic.

The two families now face eviction by the landowner and former manager of the Texan for what he says is their failure to pay utilities bills.

The Texan Motel has been gutted and stands empty except for a homeless man who has taken over one of the rooms.

The party crowd dispersed and could not be located for this article.

George "Sonny" Hoffman, suffering chest pains and cramping, was taken to a local emergency room the day after the storm and later spent time in military hospitals in Pensacola, Fla., and Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was treated for wounds and for deep abscesses in his gums. Ultimately, doctors removed his teeth because of the damage suffered in the storm. He is now living in a camper in Corpus Christi, writing a book about his experience in Hurricane Katrina, and adding to his hurricane Web site while awaiting a new set of teeth from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

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