If the city of Seguin, Texas, hadn’t suffered several devastating floods in the 1990s, its citizens almost certainly would not have acted as they did when the exhausted, fleeing victims of Katrina and Rita arrived on their doorstep in September.

This city, 39 miles due east of San Antonio on the Guadalupe River, knew disaster up close and knew what to do. Its citizens had a response structure honed and ready to go into action. This time, though, they were called on to save their neighbors, not themselves.

As Katrina bore down on New Orleans, motorists headed west along Interstate 10, looking for shelter. Hotels filled up fast along that route. For dozens of families, Seguin, city of 24,000 at Exit 612, was the first place with any motel rooms available. They headed toward them.

It was in those hotels a day or two later that the Seguin Area Recovery teams found their work awaiting them. The disaster recovery group that rejuvenates when need arises had met with the Salvation Army, district officials, city personnel and the local ministerial association and decided to visit all hotels and invite evacuees to gather at a luncheon.

“We encountered families who were merely stopping over in Seguin, who had relatives in California or elsewhere,” said the Rev. Jay George of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church. “What they needed was immediate response – gas money, food money. That’s where the Salvation Army really stepped in.”

Don Richey, a member of St. Andrews, and head of Seguin Area Recovery and its Unmet Needs Committee, coordinated much of the effort.

“We provided pre-paid gas cards… Wal-Mart cards so they could get toiletries, diapers, clothes… whatever they needed. That first group came through as transients then dispersed in all directions,” he said.

“More followed them in,” said George, “some who were looking for temporary respite … others who were saying ‘We might as well relocate. We don’t have anything to go back to’… I believe the Seguin Area Recovery did a phenomenal job at trying to meet the different levels of need.”

A Home for Four Weeks
One of the families encountered at the luncheon  – David Dominguez and his mother Rita Dominguez  -- found a home for the four weeks of September with a couple from St. Andrew’s, Anne and Frank Galaway.

David Dominguez had been calling hotels all the way along their route out of New Orleans and the La Quinta Motel in Seguin was the first one with any openings.

“I’d never heard of Seguin in my life,” he said on his last day staying with the Galaways, “but I will never forget it the rest of my life.”

A member of the Seguin Area Recovery group had found David a job the first week. The boss invited him and his mother to dinner.

“Everybody has been super nice here. We sure weren’t expecting this when we rode into town,” he said, nodding to the group of parishioners seated around him as he told his story to a visitor.

The Dominguezes had left New Orleans the Sunday before Katrina hit on Monday.

“We packed a little night bag. Mom wanted to bring a whole lot more but I said, ‘Ma, we aren’t going on vacation. We gotta’ get out of Dodge.’”

The drive to Seguin, which normally would have taken about 10 hours, took them 24 hours. They understand that their homes back in New Orleans were not flooded. They returned on Sept. 30th with what Rita Dominguez called mixed emotions.

“We made long-lasting friends here. It kind of gets to me.”

Marion Chandler, a parishioner at St. Andrew’s and a former flood victim herself, knows what Rita means.

“In 1998, we lost everything we had. The church at that time, and this community, was very supportive to me. I have just seen this kind of effort be on-going in our church. I think those of us who were affected early on had an enormous amount of compassion for people who are being affected now.”

Rising to the Challenge
At St. Andrew’s, it was parishioner Lynn Champaigne who prompted the most comprehensive response to the disaster, according to her admiring rector.

She said to him when she learned about the families stranded in Seguin: “Let’s offer the house next door. Fix it up and open it.”

Jay George says he laughed. “Undoable!” he told her.

The house on the lot next to the church, willed to the congregation earlier, was in shambles. George describes it as filled with junk, meeting few local building codes and in total disrepair. Plus, the yard was a nightmare -- overgrown, untended and cluttered with abandoned belongings.

“It would take weeks to prepare that place,” said George.

“We can do it in a week,” was Champaigne’s response.

And they did. Forty-five of them.

Today, all express pride as they show off a bright, airy, freshly scrubbed, two-bedroom home, tastefully furnished with their donations. The lawn is mowed, the windows washed. All is ready to welcome a Katrina family.