Adjusting to life in Caruthersville

CARUTHERSVILLE, Mo. -- A fan blew hot, humid air through Aaro Hayes' Federal Emergency Management Agency mobile home one day last week. The mobile home's air conditioner quit the day after FEMA officials delivered the home to her lot Tuesday.

"It could be worse," Hayes said as she fanned herself on an 88-degree afternoon.

On the night of April 2, Hayes was alone in her mobile home when an F3 tornado ripped through Caruthersville. Nearly half the town was destroyed, including Hayes' mobile home, which toppled over and landed upside down.

"I don't remember much about that night. I just remember looking up, and I saw the sky," Hayes said. "I just kept saying, 'Lord, please help me.'"

When medical crews reached Hayes that night, she was rushed to Pemiscot Memorial Hospital, where she spent a week recovering from lacerations.

"God just didn't want me yet. If he would have wanted me, he would have got me," Hayes said.

THEN: Residents stood on the second floor of what used to be their apartment building April 3 while other residents walked the grounds looking for personal items.

NOW: Life continues on in Caruthersville as the teens of the neighborhood played basketball behind a boarded-up apartment building with damaged picnic tables still lying on the ground.

Life is returning to normal for Hayes. She will go back to work on June 10 at the Dyersburg Manor in Dyersburg, Tenn.

"I'm a whole lot better today than what I was. I was hurting. I was hurting in places I never hurt before," she said.

Next door to Hayes on 19th Street in Caruthersville, Polly Foreman is trying to adjust to a new life.

Foreman, her two young children and 35-year-old mentally handicapped cousin are living in temporary, cramped quarters. A small white FEMA travel trailer sits on Foreman's lawn in front of her destroyed house.

Foreman was told eight people could sleep comfortably in the trailer, but in actuality they have to sleep around piles of their clothes.

"If it weren't for my kids, I'd give up. It's been a nightmare," Foreman said.

THEN: Friends and family helped sort the debris of what used to be Eunice Blair's house in Caruthersville on April 3.

NOW: Eunice Blair, her husband and their pet dog have to live in a small traveling trailer while looking for another place to live after their home was destroyed in April.

FEMA began distributing temporary trailers and mobile home units to qualified applicants after President Bush declared Caruthersville a federal disaster area on April 4. The temporary shelter is not ideal for many of the residents. But for Eunice and James Blair, a travel trailer is the only choice.

The couple lives a few streets over from 19th Street. On April 2, the tornado picked up their next-door neighbor's house and threw it into the Blairs' house.

Last week, Eunice Blair fixed spaghetti in the travel trailer. The air conditioner was running, but because of the confined space, heat from the stove made the trailer feel like an oven.

"It's not comfortable, but at least we have a place to lay our heads down where it's dry," she said.

Her husband is disappointed with how FEMA has treated them.

"There's a man across the street in a mobile home by himself. I can't even sit down in the bathtub," James Blair said. "It's ignorant they put us in this little trailer."

THEN: Don Hayes got a hug from a neighbor while he was cleaning up what was left of his mother Aaro's house in Caruthers-ville on April 3.

NOW: Aaro Hayes, of Caruthersville, tried to stay cool Wednesday in front of a fan inside the temporary trailer. The air conditioner stopped working the second day she had it.

FEMA public information officer Paddy Buratto said specific criteria guide the distribution of trailers and mobile homes. The size of a resident's lot plays a role in the type of temporary housing someone receives.

Caruthersville's proximity to the Mississippi River creates another obstacle. Mobile homes can't be placed on property designated as a flood plain, Buratto said.

Buratto was stationed in Mississippi for several months after Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the Gulf. She said the tornado's destruction in Caruthersville is a small version of Hurricane Katrina.

"But devastation is no different to the people who are involved," she said.

FEMA has set up a park with 133 mobile homes. More than 90 families have already registered to live in the temporary housing for up to 18 months. The first families will move in Monday, which is also the last day to file for disaster assistance programs.

Despite the hundreds of trees that were uprooted and the debris from destroyed homes and buildings scattered throughout the neighborhoods, Caruthersville is picking up the pieces. Residents are trying to return to normal life.

THEN: James Bullington walked through his aunt's house on 18th Street in Caruthersville on April 5.

NOW: Cement steps are all that remain of the house shown on the left. Most condemned homes in Caruthersville are still standing while the city is still working on bids to tear them down.

"There's definitely some progression," said Harlin Crayne, who has lived in Caruthersville his entire life. Wednesday, Crayne was at work remodeling a rental house he owns. The roof of the house was blown off and windows were shattered from the storm.

Crayne has is selling the house and bought another house down the street to renovate.

Caruthersville School District superintendent Nick Thiele said the district will use temporary classrooms when students return to school in August. The middle and high school were damaged by the tornado.

The high school was severely damaged, and the district hasn't yet decided if it will be repaired or rebuilt. Either process could take up to two years, he said.

Students in grades seven through 12 will attend classes on the middle school campus next year. Sixth-grade students will attend class at a preschool building on the other side of town. The elementary school was not damaged.

After the tornado, students returned to school within two weeks, finishing the year attending a split shift. Enrollment was down 42 students. Thiele is prepared to lose at least 100 students by next school year.

"The kids handled the ordeal really well," he said. "They had every opportunity to be upset and be negative, but they didn't do that."

No one can estimate how long before life gets back to normal in Caruthersville. Many say the town will never be the same again and that evidence of the powerful tornado will remain in Caruthersville for years.

Almost all of the hundred-year-old trees along the scenic main drag in Caruthersville were ripped out of the ground. That's what Crayne said he will miss.

Though FEMA trailers will be in Caruthersville for up to 18 months, some of the residents aren't sure they'll be able to rebuild by then, Foreman said.

Some, like the Blairs, are moving out. The couple is preparing to buy a house in nearby Campbell, Mo.

Aaro Hayes already plans to buy her own mobile home within the next few months.

"I'm moving right back here on this same lot," she said. "I've lived here my whole life. This is my home."

jfreeze@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246