Finally, Rest For The Weary

BRANDON A roadside motel in this Tampa suburb has become a piece of paradise to families whose flight from floods and turmoil has brought them here for rest and recuperation.

The Baymont Inn, just off bustling State Road 60, is refuge to six families who escaped the wreckage left by Hurricane Katrina and are taking the first steps toward getting their lives in some sense of order.

The American Red Cross brought Sherry and William Phillips, Sherry's son, Chad Maus, their two dogs and two ferrets to the hotel Sunday.

They tell a chilling story of survival at their home in Chalmette, La., just outside New Orleans. Clinging to the top of a magnolia tree in their back yard as water climbed 12 feet in about 30 minutes. Living under an expressway overpass for almost a day. Waiting and waiting to be rescued.

They are staying in a room on the first floor. Up two flights, Gloria Thompson, 76, and her daughter, Veronica Dillon, 57, are resting from their harrowing escape from New Orleans. Their ordeal included several days at the Superdome and evacuation to Tampa with other survivors who needed medical attention.

The families are among thousands of Gulf Coast evacuees sent to safety in other parts of the country. The Red Cross brought the families to Brandon after they were evacuated to Tampa.

Veronica Dillon, who uses a wheelchair, took a bus with her mother to the Superdome the day before the storm hit.

The Superdome was bad.

"It was terrible. We could not bathe. The toilets were a mess. I had to force myself to eat something," Thompson said.

"I've got to go back and see what's happening."

In the meantime, she said, people have been treating her wonderfully since she arrived in Florida. On Tuesday, the hotel manager sent up nightgowns and robes she had purchased for the two women.

"They are treating us nice here. We have good food and a place to stay," Thompson said. She's not sure what's next.

"I just don't know yet what I'm going to do. I know we have lost everything."

The Phillipses were in their house when the water began to rise. They put their two dogs -- Gizmo, a Pekingese, and Tiger, a dachshund -- and two ferrets into the attic.

Water rushed into the house and their refrigerator blocked the back door.

"We had to swim underneath the doorjambs to get outside, where we clung to the gutters," said William Phillips, 45. "We made our way to the back of the house and clung to the magnolia tree out there."

The couple grabbed a Michelin truck tire floating by and swam to a neighbor's roof.

Rescuers took the group to a shelter, and the next day, William Phillips paddled a canoe home to rescue their pets.

"I ripped out the wind turbine fan, but I couldn't get in the hole," he said. "I found a landscape timber floating by and used it to bust the hole in the roof larger so I could get in."

The dogs and ferrets, in small cages, accompanied them on their journey to several shelters and then to an expressway overpass. By then, Sherry Phillips, 40, was suffering from heat exhaustion and qualified for medical evacuation.

The military helicopter pilot agreed to take the animals and brought them all to New Orleans Airport in Kenner, La.. The next available flight happened to be to Tampa.

The Humane Society of Tampa Bay took the couple's pets and cared for them until they were settled in the hotel.

"They were so good to our animals. When we got them back, they had been given their shots, bathed and even had new toys," Sherry Phillips said.

The couple have purchased a used van, and after a day or two more of rest, they will head to Nashville, Tenn., to stay with Sherry Phillips' sister.

Maybe they will resettle there.

"I don't want to deal with any more hurricanes. I'd rather take an earthquake or a tornado," William Phillips said.