 "Photo: Mandy Derfler")
SABINE PASS - After Hurricane Rita, it took Kristi Heid four days to return to this coastal town of 600. Two weeks later, Heid converted a muddied building not 30 feet from her home, into a distribution center for residents.
From a hotel in Kemah, Heid made the hour and half trip daily back to Sabine Pass. As the principal of the town's lone school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, Heid used her credentials to gain access to damaged areas.
While salvaging the school's computer servers, Heid posted updates on the Internet for information-starved evacuees.
"You can't tell from what it looks like on the surface. But there was 2 to 6 feet of water in the homes with slick mud sulfur, silt and lots of ocean debris, in both the gymnasium and auditorium," Heid said.
On one occasion, while assessing the damaged roof below the school's lighthouse-like tower, she peered out through panoramic windows at the destruction below.
"This was an awesome view right after the storm. There was so much ocean debris that it was a little scary. It's almost like the ocean spit it back at us." she said.
Heid estimated 95 percent of the homes were destroyed and 83 percent of the population has returned to the area. Those not returning are mostly elderly people.
While working at the distribution center, Heid would call city government in Port Arthur of which Sabine Pass is a bedroom community. City officials were confused about who she was or who she was working with.
"I'd say I'm working for the city of Sabine Pass, and I need this stuff."
When school resumed on Oct. 25, after six weeks forced vacation, Heid and other administrators worked to return some normalcy to the students' lives.
"At home they don't have a house. You have to be patient when what little stuff you've saved is now in a tent next to a FEMA trailer," Heid said.
The school brought in social workers to let students share their stories. High school sophomore Cody Almond said returning to classes was unsettling.
"It was weird, kind of scary, no one was here, a bunch of trash everywhere. It was different," Almond said.
Almond is Heid's godson and lives on her lawn in a FEMA trailer.
The principal's home faces the school. She joked that the daily trips crossing the street cause more wear to her shoes than her tires. Her yard is crowded with two FEMA-issued trailers, one for her family and the other for Almond's mother and her three children. A couple of tents with the family's belongings are pitched next to the trailers - a sight echoed throughout the town.
FEMA trailers are loaned to the displaced for 18 months, but delays in distribution count as time used.
Heid said Almond and his family worry about what's going to happen when those months are up.
"I'm not sure what's going to happen. We'll just play it out one day at a time and help each other figure it out," Heid said.
With great responsibility all around her, Heid hadn't found time to start on her own home until Dec. 26. Because the three-bedroom brick house was swamped by ocean debris and diesel residue, its carpet must be stripped and drywall replaced. "We're in the story, and we don't know how it's going to end," Heid said.
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