Pride, Grief mesh 1 year after Katrina

By DENIS DEVINE
North County Times
Monday, Aug. 30, 2006

Katrina, one year later: David Perez says more help needed for hurricane victims here and in Gulf States

One year ago, David Perez fumed at what he saw on TV: fellow Americans seemingly abandoned by their government in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Today, almost a year since the San Diego businessman pulled off one of the boldest private relief efforts in history, Perez is still upset. But now he's outraged at what he doesn't see. Before this week's anniversary, media attention to, public awareness of and charitable support for the ongoing struggles of the people whose lives were blown apart by the most devastating storm in U.S. history had all but disappeared, he said.

"It seems like everybody just swept this under the carpet," he said Monday.

But for Perez, the local relief agencies into whose care he delivered planeloads of Katrina victims and the many evacuees still struggling to make it in Southern California, the struggle goes on.

Now resettled in National City, Katie Johnson was on that first flight out of Baton Rouge, La. ---- a private 737 jet chartered by Perez, chief executive of a Carmel Valley-based oil exploration firm. On Sept. 4, 2005, Perez landed at San Diego's Lindbergh Field with 82 men, women and children he had plucked from overcrowded shelters.

Johnson, who will turn 50 next month, was in the Miracle Place Church shelter in Baker, La., that day when she agreed to accompany the stranger from San Diego halfway across the country.

"I just felt the Lord led me this way," Johnson said Tuesday. "I thought about it a little bit and said, 'Why not?' I didn't have anywhere else to go." She said she considers the man who brought her and her three children to their new home "an angel."

"He helped us very, very good," she said Tuesday, "and God bless him for it."

Johnson completed her second day of job training Tuesday as part of her welfare assistance. She said she hopes to land a desk job because standing for long hours brings her pain and swollen feet.

Overall, Johnson said, San Diego has been a step up for her and her children from the apartment complex they left behind in New Orleans' West Bank.

"Everybody's been nice and cooperative," she said. "As far as educationwise, I think my children will be getting a better education here."

She has made three trips back to New Orleans; a sister still lives in Baton Rouge. From her ravaged and looted apartment in the West Bank, all that Johnson was able to salvage were a few photos of her daughter, Calrika, and a few articles of clothing.

Asked Tuesday whether Perez had delivered on the extravagant promises he made to that first batch of evacuees he persuaded to board his plane to San Diego, Johnson didn't hesitate.

"Yes sir, he did," she said brightly. "He lived up to his word, in everything he said that he was going to do it, he did it. I thank God he did."

As for her own family, Johnson said, "We're going to be all right, as long as I trust in God and keep the faith."

Faith-based groups have been the primary caregivers for most of the families Perez brought to San Diego.

Poway's Friends and Family Community Connection helped 34 families from Gulf states, director Phil Harris said Monday. All but one have moved on, either back home or to other cities. Besides setting them up with jobs, financial literacy training and shelter across North County, the Friends and Family faith-based nonprofit group helped build 23 homes in the hurricane-ravaged region, mostly in and around east Biloxi, Miss. Next week, Harris is making his seventh trip to Mississippi with volunteers eager to help Katrina survivors rebuild.

Harris, too, lamented the waning of America's interest.

"We're down to our last $8,000," he said. With funds running out, Harris said his group plans to stop building homes despite no shortage of need.

For his part, Perez said, his efforts to aid Katrina survivors continued apace despite a dismaying drop-off in donations.

"We literally got a thousand bucks in donations since January," Perez said. "Not too many people are writing checks. It's sad; a lot of the people that made their money in our community, big chain stores, fast-food restaurants, the businesses who thrive off people in Louisiana, that took money out of the community, you don't see them giving back."

Since his initial, frenzied foray into Katrina relief, Perez has expanded his work, laying out more than $500,000 of his own money by his own account. His 2 Life 18 Foundation bought 24 diesel generators for Gulf relief work, some still in use powering shelters in Louisiana and Texas. The foundation also bought a pair of high-tech trailers to serve as disaster command centers; they are now being outfitted with satellite communication technology in an Encinitas shop.

Perez's hastily organized foundation organized 74 supply missions carrying 507 tons of food, water and medical supplies to Gulf states. His 2 Life 18 foundation also reports having picked up the tab for 384 people to fly out of the Gulf, including 126 to San Diego.

Perez's hands-on charitable work hasn't stopped, either. His wife, Orly, spends some weekends driving evacuees over to Costco; Perez dispatched an assistant to downtown San Diego on Monday to pay one of his evacuees' bus fare on a return trip from a job interview.

Perez asked people to "rekindle the flame that allowed them to give."

"It's not going to take a month or a year to rebuild; they lost a lifetime," he said. "Whatever you could afford, keep giving. Don't stop."

The agencies mentioned in this story can be contacted via these Web sites: www.2Life18.org; and www.ffcc-sd.org.