Safe – with help from guardian angels
How the Luninais family made it from the Gulf Coast to Milwaukee

Alane Luminais believes a guardian angel was watching out for her family after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast Aug. 29. She and her family — husband Donald, and sons Michael, 16, and Tom, 5 — fled their home in LaPlace, some 13 miles west of New Orleans, one day before the hurricane came ashore.

After a suspenseful, nerve wracking three days on the road, a journey that took them to Pensacola, Fla., back to Louisiana and eventually to Milwaukee, the family is adjusting to their new life.

“I think (Milwaukee) is where we’re supposed to be,” said Luminais during an interview in the kitchen of her brother Eric Schroeder’s home on Milwaukee’s south side. Schroeder has opened his home to his sister’s family, and while more than three weeks have passed since evacuating, Luminais is still counting her blessings.

She is especially grateful to St. Augustine Parish and Fr. Tom Wittliff, pastor, for their generous support, and to her uncle, Capuchin Fr. Jerome Schroeder, pastor of St. Benedict the Moor Parish, for his assistance.

Having lived in Louisiana since 1976, Luminais was accustomed to the hurricane season and the evacuation warnings preceding some of them. In fact, she said, last year she evacuated after a hurricane was predicted to hit the region.

“I spent four or five hours stuck in traffic and I only got about 30 miles,” she recalled. “The storm turned like I knew it would and I got home in 20 minutes.”

When news of Hurricane Katrina was first reported, Luminais said she was skeptical.

“I decided I didn’t want to evacuate this year unless we had to,” she said.

By Saturday evening, Aug. 27, it was apparent that evacuation was necessary. Luminais had spent the day working at Plantation Decor, a flower shop in Destrehan, where she was a licensed florist.

When she got home, she and Donald discussed their plans. “We didn’t have much money because my husband had just lost his job. He did find another job, but his income was cut in half. It was down to the penny.”

They knew that evacuating would mean buying gas for their vehicles and paying for lodging. “I said, let’s wait until tomorrow, like our neighbors are doing,” said Luminais.

At 11 p.m. Saturday evening, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin appeared on television strongly recommending that people evacuate the city.

Storm goes from category 3 to 5

“At 6 a.m. (Sunday) my husband woke me up and said, ‘We’ve got to go now. It went from a (category) 3 to a 5 very quickly,” said Luminais, “and what was also scary was that it wasn’t moving very fast.”

Having evacuated before, Luminais knew what to take.

“My husband is a hunter and he wants his guns — and the Atlas map,” she said. “I always want my vital documents in my fireproof safe and my wedding album, which was still wrapped in plastic bags from a previous evacuation.”

Michael packed his Playstation 2 and Harry Potter books, and Luminais packed Thomas’s favorite blanket, teddy bear and a coloring book and crayons.

In addition, she packed some left over jambalaya and the family’s hurricane survival kit — a box of food with items such as tuna fish and graham crackers.

“It’s stuff you buy at the beginning of the hurricane season and hide so the kids won’t eat it,” she said. “At the end of the season you break it out and eat it.”

As they packed, the gravity of the storm began to hit.

“On the news they interviewed a woman holding her baby. She said, ‘I have no money, I have no car. I have no way to leave town.’ I almost cried knowing that that woman was probably going to die,” said Luminais.

With their Chevy Malibu and Dodge Ram loaded, Alane and Donald hit the road at 7 a.m. Sunday. Instead of traveling west or northwest like most other hurricane evacuees, Donald convinced Alane that their best route would be to drive east.

From their home in LaPlace, they drove through New Orleans and along the coast to Ocean Springs, Miss., where a friend of Donald’s father lived.

“We considered riding out the storm there, but decided to go more east,” said Luminais.

Family arrives in Florida

After 30 minutes in Ocean Springs the family drove to Florida. About 7 p.m. they arrived in Pensacola and began looking for a hotel. The only hotel with a vacancy offered the family a suite for $95, which Luminais said turned out to be a scam. She was told it was the last room available, but after checking in Luminais said other guests arrived and were told the same thing. Instead of the promised amenities, “the room was small and filthy, with holes in the sheetrock.”

She and other guests plan to register a complaint against the hotel.

“That night we lost electricity,” said Luminais. “The hurricane came in but we were far enough to only have severe winds and rain.”

The heat and humidity were stifling.

“It was so hot, people stayed up all night with their doors open and sitting on porches,” she said. With no cell phone contact with relatives, the family decided to stay another night in Pensacola.

After finally getting through to Donald’s father, the couple had a plan: they would call the mother of Donald’s father’s ex-wife. She lived about one hour from Pensacola. This plan was scuttled when they learned other evacuees were staying there.

“My husband said, ‘Forget this. We’re just going to your brother’s.”

It was Tuesday morning and the family was on the road again, this time heading west.

Time to move to Milwaukee?

According to Luminais, in the past she and Donald talked about moving to Milwaukee, but it didn’t seem to be the right time. Hurricane Katrina gave them motivation to move.

With the thought of relocating to Milwaukee, Luminais said she first wanted to return to LaPlace. Her son from a previous marriage, Cory, 17, lives in Slidell with his father. She also wanted to check in on her mother, Diane Barringer, her best friend Teresa, and pick up a few items from home.

“I prayed that these things would happen,” said Luminais.

As they drove closer to the Gulf Coast in Mississippi, the scope of Hurricane Katrina’s wrath became clear.

“As we were driving through Mississippi we saw a cow and a tugboat practically on the interstate,” she said. “As we got closer to Slidell the debris got worse. We saw a big oil tanker in the middle of the interstate. You knew the water flooded it all the way up there.”

The family had to take backroads because vehicles without proper registration were being turned back. The roads were cluttered with debris such as trees, downed power lines and building material.

Luminais was happy to visit her son and know he survived without injury. She also made it to her friend Teresa’s home and learned that she had evacuated with her husband. The next stop was to her mother’s home in LaCombe. Her mother and stepfather also survived the hurricane with minor damage to their home. But without electricity and in the midst of deadly temperatures, Luminais convinced her mother, who had developed heat rash, to drive with her to Milwaukee.

Good Samaritans offer assistance

By the time Luminais left LaCombe, along with her mother and son Thomas, it was late Tuesday afternoon. Donald convinced Alane to drive ahead to Milwaukee and he and Michael would stop and check on their home.

When Luminais arrived in Mississippi, she was low on gas.

“It was almost on fumes so we started praying,” she said. “It’s getting to be dusk and one station had a line about a mile long.”

Luminais exited the freeway at Hazelhurst, Miss., and waited in line at a gas station, which was closed due to a power outage. She said several good samaritans approached them and offered assistance.

“By then it was dark and the mosquitoes were eating us up,” said Luminais. “I couldn’t find bug spray so I was spraying air freshener on me.”

Angels light the way

Two men in a truck told Luminais about a church shelter and offered to give her an escort to the shelter. Somewhat nervous, she agreed.

“We followed these guys and there were no lights in the city,” she said. “I could see some buildings and all of a sudden boom, boom, boom, these lights on each side of the road light up. We drive up a little more where the lights end and boom, boom, boom, a second row of lights just light up on each side. I said, ‘Look at that, the angels know we’re here.’ The whole town got their electricity back.”

After arriving at the First Baptist Church in Hazelhurst, the three travelers received a meal. Luminais learned that gas stations were opened and pumping gas. Still on a near-empty tank, she made it to a gas station and filled up her car. It was about 11 p.m. when Luminais got back on the road.

“I felt a lot of my prayers were answered,” she said. “(God) took care of us. He gave us a hot meal first and then gave us gas.”

Unable to reach Donald on her cell phone, Luminais and her mother continued driving.

“All of a sudden from the corner of my eye I see this light,” she said, alluding to a vehicle on the side of the road. “So we pulled over on the shoulder and I put the car in reverse.”

In the middle of the night, in the middle of Mississippi, she found her husband and son, sleeping in their truck.

“I just felt so grateful because it’s so scary being out on the road,” she said. The family drove to West Memphis, where they spent the night at a Days Inn.

They arrived safely in Milwaukee late Wednesday evening, Aug. 31.

Milwaukeeans extend warm welcome

Since their arrival, Luminais said friends, relatives and strangers have been generous, offering furniture, housewares, clothing and money. After contacting St. Augustine Parish, located near her brother’s home, Luminais said Fr. Wittliff took an interest in her family’s plight and offered them financial assistance. On Sept. 4 they attended Mass at St. Augustine and Fr. Wittliff invited Luminais to share her story. After Mass, the family was overwhelmed by parishioners’ generosity.

“Everybody was shaking my husband’s hand and putting money in it,” she said.

The couple hopes to find jobs in the area and make enough money to get back on their feet. Luminais also hopes to return to LaPlace and pick up personal possessions from her home, which escaped major damage. Presently her father-in-law is living at the house.

In the meantime, life’s pace is finally slowing for Luminais.

“Two days ago I got my first long night’s sleep,” she said.

She looks forward to the day when she can thank everyone who’s offered her family assistance. “When we get settled, we’ll cook up some jambalaya and bring it to all of the people who have helped us.”

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