No one, not even the University’s most devoted exercisers, went to the Student Recreational Sports Complex the Monday Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, but Director Tamara Jarrett and some of her staff were there just in case.
Twenty-four hours later, it was relief workers, not students, at the door. They were arriving in droves from around the country to rest at the complex in between their exhausting shifts.
Federal Emergency Management Agency workers, morticians, veterinarians, counselors, forensic dentists, surgeons and members of law enforcement spread out their mattresses and blankets on the racquetball courts, group exercise rooms and the cardio room on the second floor.
“Since the day after the hurricane, they’ve been coming in pretty steadily,” Jarrett said Friday.
Jarrett estimates that about 1,000 relief workers have stayed at the complex.
“We had already moved the second floor equipment for renovations,” she said. “It was like it was meant to be.”
The complex notified the architects working on the renovations, who extended the contract two weeks. Construction, which originally was set to start at the beginning of school, will not start until Thursday.
Displaced families moved out of residence halls Friday and the recreational complex is now temporarily housing some of them, said Mimi Lavalle, communications manager for Residential Life.
Jarrett said Residential Life and other individuals donated hundreds of mattresses for the weary workers. Because complex workers could not wash sheets and find toiletries quickly enough to accommodate the new residents, Jarrett contacted her sister, an administrator at Duke University, and some of her other friends around the country who sent boxes of toiletries, blankets and other supplies.
Linc Hay, a psychotherapist for the team and a mental health specialist and clinical social worker from Florida, said coming back to the complex after a shift at the New Orleans airport field hospital or in St. Bernard Parish made her feel like she was “back in the human race.”
“Being out for 24 hours in filth and contamination and to be able to come in and shower and sleep has been wonderful,” Hay said.
Hay is in the first division of the Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams organization. VMAT groups include veterinarians, technicians, a pharmacist, a mental health specialist and personnel to administer care to animals and humans. They carry medical equipment, food supplies and tents to states that ask for VMAT’s aid.
Hay said more than 60 members of her team are staying at the complex for two weeks and going out on different shifts around the clock. Hay’s group is still staying at the complex, and VMAT will send in more teams for two week shifts until their relief services are no longer needed, Hay said.
“I can’t say enough for their southern hospitality,” Hay said of the complex’s workers, who did laundry for the response workers. “This is the biggest disaster America has ever had and still these people smile at us.”
Students continued to use the track, weight rooms, racquetball and basketball courts while the relief workers – in exercise rooms a few feet away – slept for a few precious hours. Student workers in their purple employee polo shirts continued to come to the complex day and night to help out with the extra work.
“I’ve talked to a few of the workers and they’ve expressed thanks,” said Jonathan Stoltz, a complex supervisor who worked a 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift handing out towels and toiletries to the steady influx of workers.
Stoltz, accounting senior from Kenner, said he is particularly grateful that the complex is reaching out to the workers because he was one of those affected by the hurricane.
“These were people at 9/11, Oklahoma City- and they all say this is the worst thing they’ve ever seen,” Jarrett said.
Though the tragedy has impacted the University and relief workers, a veterinarian penned one simple sentence on an LSU flag that describes her experience: “We will always remember the purple shirts.”
Contact Leslie Ziober at [email protected]