| | |
| | |
 | You and Yours - Transcript BBC Radio 4 |
| |
| Print This Page |
| |
| |
| TX: 27.09.05 - Hurricane Rita Update PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON |
| |
| Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. ROBINSON Texas has begun the task of resettling the three million people who fled Hurricane Rita last week. Out in New Orleans , despite a call from the mayor for people to start coming back, many are not ready to return, not yet anyway. Rox'e Homstad is a Braille teacher, like her husband she's partially sighted. As she explained to Peter White at the time of her evacuation from New Orleans four weeks ago, her new home town was decided by nothing more than a train timetable read out over the phone by a call centre worker. HOMSTAD So the lady that I spoke with read off the stops and there were a bunch of stops in Mississippi and then there was a stop in Memphis , Tennessee . So I said we'll go to Memphis because that's going to be safe. WHITE How difficult was it to go somewhere else, you didn't know, it was decided purely on where the train actually went and find accommodation, for example? HOMSTAD My husband and I just asked a lot of directions and we had a lot of help from people in churches here. But you know we are on our own and you just have to be able to be confident and be a good traveller. ROBINSON Well a month on we've caught up with Rox'e to find out how she is coping, she's now found an apartment to live in and she's looking for a job and she's still getting to know Memphis. HOMSTAD In New Orleans it was easier because my dog knew where to go and I basically knew, I had a very good proprioceptive memory of where things were. Now in Memphis I get lost a lot. It's good, you know I'm very comfortable, I have very good orientation and mobility training and I have met with an orientation and mobility person here briefly to get input about what landmarks around me - where can I catch the bus, where is the nearest grocery store etc. WHITE You also presumably had to do things like book with a new doctor, that kind of thing? HOMSTAD Yes the doctors here won't - I don't know if they're going to accept my health insurance - it was a programme called Medicaid that we have here for people who are disabled or low incomes and the reason that Medicaid is not - it's not accepted in any other state but Louisiana and the rate at which Louisiana pays for medical services under Medicaid is not very high and a lot of doctors don't want you. WHITE You were concerned about friends and clients in New Orleans, have you found out anymore about how they've fared, how they are? HOMSTAD Yeah, I found out a co-worker of mine he had an offer to go out of town with someone and he told them no because he thought he had a ride to go and then he called the original ride and the ride had already left, so he was forced - and he's visually impaired - to ride out the storm in his closet with his cellphone and his radio. And I can't imagined as a visually impaired person in a closet by yourself how scary it must be to just sit there and listen to those winds, you know just growl and howl and not be able to see and - it must have been really hard. And then he was at the Convention Centre and he's since landed with some friends. I found out that one of our - older people that worked for us is dead because she refused to leave her home, I'm not sure what the circumstances were but we were very sorry to hear about that. WHITE What were your feelings over the weekend as the latest hurricane hit New Orleans and your city was underwater again? HOMSTAD Oh boy, it was - I was, you know, it was just like this is never going to end, it's like one after another, after another, just really reinforces my questioning - do I really want to go back there? [indistinct words] flooded again and the levees broken and it was very stressful. WHITE Will you ever go back do you think? HOMSTAD I really can't visualise what this is like, I can't imagine - you know they describe it on the radio and the TV and I just can't imagine and a part of me just really wants to see it for myself and a part of me really wants to say goodbye because when you are packing up everything you own or everything you can carry and you're leaving you don't really have the time to sort of - I'm an old sentimental, you know, I think I would just really like to go back and say goodbye. ROBINSON Rox'e Homstad. Back to the You and Yours homepage The BBC is not responsible for external websites |
| About the BBC | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy |
