Flood evacuees try to stay upbeat

January 4, 2006

By CHRIS SAMSON
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

It's no fun being forced to evacuate your home due to rising flood waters, but Lorraine Drake managed to find some humor and look at the bright side during a difficult ordeal.

Drake, her daughter Kelly Drake and neighbor Barbara Everson, residents at Youngstown Mobile Home Park, were among 130 people evacuated to the Petaluma Community Center Saturday morning after heavy rains had flooded their park.

Drake, who plans to go on a cruise ship this summer, saw emergency personnel in a yellow raft Saturday morning and said, "My first thought was, 'I get to go on a cruise early.'"

She had gone to sleep early the night before and was not expecting the heavy, steady rain and the evacuation that ensued.

"I didn't realize it had rained so hard," said Drake. Saturday morning, the fire department arrived and told her she would need to gather her essentials for an overnight stay. They put her and other mobile home residents on a bus to the Community Center, where the Red Cross had set up an emergency shelter.

"It's a place for them to ride out the storm, stay dry and get something to eat," said Red Cross spokesman Ellen Maremont Silver at the shelter on Saturday morning. The Red Cross provided food and beverages and about 10 people spent the night sleeping on cots Saturday night. By midday Sunday, the shelter had closed as the evacuees were able to return to their homes or were picked up by friends or family.

Residents were evacuated from four mobile home parks -- Leisure Lake, Capri, Youngstown and Petaluma Estates -- as well as from Pamela Court and Capri Court.

Drake said she didn't notice the extent of the flooding around her mobile home until about 8 a.m. Saturday. "The fire department was going door to door, asking people to evacuate," she said.

Drake said she was "thrilled" to get a piggyback ride from a firefighter to a waiting evacuation bus. Once on the bus, she was delighted to get to know several other residents of the mobile home park whom she hadn't met before.

She was allowed to bring her two pets along in portable carriers. "Normally they wouldn't have allowed me to bring them, but since I had a place to stay that night, they let me," she said.

Barbara Everson, Drake's neighbor in Youngstown mobile home park, said, "They were very adamant about getting us out of there." She had awakened about 3 a.m. Saturday and heard the heavy rains, but then went back to sleep. When she woke up after daybreak, she looked out her window and saw "a lake out there."

Everson, Lorraine and Kelly Drake spent Saturday night with friends and prepared to return to their homes after the flood waters had receded.

(Contact Chris Samson at csamson@arguscourier.com)