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Updated: 8:29 PM Oct 4, 2005
Texas Deaths - Local Evacuees
Meridian As many locals continue to recover from Hurricane Katrina there are some others in the area who are still trying to recover from the wrath of Rita.
Posted: 2:29 PM Oct 4, 2005Reporter: Andrea Williams |
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For Evelyn Davis the last two weeks has been a time that she says unfortunately she can never forget. With just $100 in her pocket, two days before Hurricane Rita hit she and her four children drove from Beaumont, Texas to Mississippi to stay with relatives in Newton County. Some of Davis' friends came along as well. Since the storm, not only has her hometown been put in the national spotlight but so have her friends who were with her in Mississippi.
You might remember two days after the storm two adults and ultimately four children died in an apartment in Beaumont from carbon monoxide poisoning. It was caused by a portable generator which the family had placed inside the apartment due to fears that someone would steal it. Well, the victims were some of Davis' closest friends who just hours before the accident had left East Mississippi to return home. Even now, Davis says she's haunted by the last time her family spoke with her friends after they arrived back in Beaumont.
"My daughter said that I told her just to tell them to go to sleep and I'd talk to them in the morning and she told my daughter to tell me to go to sleep because it was so dark around there," says Davis.
Davis says she was never able to talk to them again because by noon of that following day, she had received a call that her six friends had passed. While saddened by the ordeal, Davis says she still is very thankful.
"They had told us that they had generators and for us to come back with ‘em and thank God that me and my babies didn't leave," says Davis.
Meanwhile, with her husband caring for relatives in Houston, Davis and her four children have just moved into a hotel in Meridian. For now, it's their home while the status of their real home remains unknown. With officials in Beaumont set to decide later this week when residents can return to the city, Davis says when it comes to her plans for the future, it's a daily dilemma.
"I fell confused! It's just I'm living from day-to-day trying to make sure we have it and keeping things going for ourselves," says Davis.
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