Saints Step In For Evacuees In Need

PALM HARBOR Lawrence LeBourgeois calls it "divine intervention," a story of strangers whose lives intersected with the help of a radio show.

LeBourgeois' story started two weeks ago when he fled his New Orleans home with his 14-year-old son, Zachary, 12 hours before Hurricane Katrina struck the city.

After spending days in Red Cross shelters in Mississippi and Tennessee, he learned of a Redington Shores woman who worked to find refuge for evacuees like him.

By Sunday, he celebrated his 38th birthday in a Palm Harbor restaurant, gathering presents from newfound friends and finally meeting the good Samaritan who found him shelter.

"It's been such a humbling thing," he said.

The night the hurricane struck, LeBourgeois and his son were in a hotel in Grenada, Miss., with enough money to stay just one night.

They knew they could not go back home, so father and son left for a nearby Red Cross shelter.

A day later, the two left for Memphis, Tenn., where LeBourgeois' younger brother, Dominick, had fled from the hurricane. It was there that LeBourgeois met a stranger named Ryan, who had heard of a Web site that connected evacuees with temporary housing. Delilah, the nationally syndicated radio show host, had promoted the site on her show.

If LeBourgeois was interested, the stranger had a Florida number for him to call. LeBourgeois was apprehensive; he had his son to think about, and he didn't know this man.

But he was down to $50 and knew he couldn't go back home or to his job as a subcontractor laying floors.

"I was desperate," he said.

The stranger called the number for him and connected him with Stella Herrick.

An Offer To Help

Herrick, of Redington Shores, saw the destruction to New Orleans and wanted to help. She had an unoccupied home in Indiana and hoped to house evacuees there.

Red Cross officials informed her they could not accept the home as a donation. So Herrick created the Web site, disasterreliefhousing .zoomshare.com, later advertised on Delilah's show.

"I had something to give, and nobody was taking it," said Herrick, 60.

Soon after the radio broadcast, Herrick received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from people nationwide offering their homes as shelter.

When LeBourgeois reached her, he was interested in coming to Florida. Was there a home for him and his son?

Herrick remembered an e-mail she received from a Palm Harbor woman offering two bedrooms in her home. Herrick directed LeBourgeois to Pinellas County.

He said he didn't have any money; Herrick said she'd pay for his gas.

Then she called the Palm Harbor home. Chris Odom answered the phone.

'A Good Match'

Odom and her husband, Phil, were planning to celebrate their 25th anniversary this week. The Palm Harbor couple spent days searching for cities to visit but hadn't settled on a destination.

"I kept thinking about Katrina, and those people," Odom would later say. She told her husband she wanted to stay and do something for them.

"That's funny you said that," Phil Odom said. "That's just what I was thinking."

Chris Odom had listened to Delilah's radio show and found the Web site the host mentioned. She sent an e-mail to Herrick. Days later, she received a reply.

Herrick asked whether Odom could shelter a man traveling with his 14-year-old son. Odom said she could. "It seemed like a good match."

An Introduction

LeBourgeois reached Florida on Sept. 4. However, his 1986 Chrysler broke down on Interstate 75, near Ocala. He called the Odoms, who volunteered to drive to Ocala to retrieve father and son.

Within a week, neighbors had befriended the New Orleans family.

The Stein Mart department store offered clothing. LeBourgeois found work with a Pasco County flooring company. Zachary enrolled in Joseph L. Carwise Middle School in Palm Harbor; teachers there gave him Mardi Gras beads.

On Sunday, LeBourgeois' birthday, the Odoms offered to take father and son to the Palm Harbor Ale House so they could watch their beloved New Orleans Saints play football.

When they arrived at the restaurant, a surprise party awaited. Among the partygoers was Herrick.

Herrick introduced herself to LeBourgeois. The two embraced.

Then Herrick and Chris Odom met and spent hours piecing together what brought them together.

Said Odom: "Everything had worked out the way it was meant to be."