by CNN
Published: Wed, September 03, 2008 - 4:27 pm CST
Last Updated: Wed, September 03, 2008 - 4:35 pm CST
As thousands of Louisiana residents nervously return home, wondering whether Hurricane Gustav left any permanent scars on their lives, there is no such mystery for Delphine Orgeron. The 67-year-old New Orleans native who rode out the hurricane in a shelter near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is homeless, living on the street, sleeping in her car.When Gustav began to threaten the Louisiana coast, Orgeron loaded her few belongings and her three cats into her car, spent her last few dollars on gas and left Slidell, Louisiana, for Baton Rouge where she has a cousin.
She hoped her cousin could offer a place to stay and some money to get food and enough gas to return to Slidell after the storm passed. Orgeron's cousin did give her some money but couldn't take her in during the storm.
So Orgeron, who requires the help of a walker to get around, went back to the street, this time in a strange city as a major hurricane approached. When some state troopers saw her sitting in front of a park after curfew, they offered to take her to a shelter. She decided it would be safer to ride out the hurricane at the shelter rather than take her chances on the street.
Orgeron finally had a roof over her head, if only temporarily, at the West Baton Rouge Community Center across the Mississippi River in Port Royal, Louisiana.
The shelter workers gave her a cot in a hallway off the main lobby, in a space all her own. Her car, with her three cats inside, was visible through the window in a nearby door as it was pelted by the storm.
Here, she passed the seemingly endless hours that were filled with the cacophony of howling wind, driving rain and rambunctious young evacuees by writing the story of how she ended up in such an unfamiliar environment on such an inhospitable day.
Despite all the noise, Orgeron, or "Angel" as she's been called since she was born, sits hunched over in her chair, pen and paper in hand, filling another page with neatly aligned cursive text. This isn't the first time in her life she's documented her personal story in what she calls a "book," but it may be the most difficult.
Orgeron has been homeless since she was evicted from her apartment in Slidell in July when she could no longer afford to pay the rent with her very low income.
"So much money is donated to these people to help people like me. The thing is, that's never there when you really need it," Orgeron says as she describes how she's called numerous organizations asking for help, with nothing to show for her efforts.
Orgeron wasn't always homeless. Three years ago, she lived with her husband in a house in Chalmette, Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina took nearly everything when it destroyed their home on the east side of New Orleans. They evacuated to Texas but eventually returned to Slidell, where they were living in an apartment.
After they returned to Louisiana, Orgeron says, her husband became very ill and was moved to an assisted-living facility. Orgeron has been visiting him once a week, and they celebrated their 10th anniversary last month. Her visits continued even after she was evicted from her apartment and forced to live on the street.
When Hurricane Gustav threatened Slidell, her husband was evacuated by his daughters. But, she says, they wouldn't take her with them. The last time she saw her husband was last week, before Gustav hit the Louisiana coast.
Orgeron says she has no idea where her husband was taken, and when she tries to call, no on answers the phone. Orgeron hopes to be able to visit her husband after Gustav passes, but she doesn't expect to live with him again.
"He's going down fast," she says. Doctors recently discovered cancer in his kidney.
Orgeron is left to face Gustav alone, except for her three feline companions.
"It's been hell," she says when asked what the past few days have been like.
She says none of her family is able or willing to help. "I think it's wrong, because I've always taken them in with my mother. ... I think it should be reciprocated back."
Like so many other evacuees in the shelter, Orgeron hopes to go home when the roads are clear and the evacuation orders lifted. Unlike the others, she knows that her home, the street, survived unscathed, except a few inches of water and downed tree limbs.
"I've fallen through the cracks, and I can't get up. ... I've been abandoned by everyone I know," Orgeron says as she passes the time writing her book, telling her story to anyone who might one day read it.
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