AURORA - Hurricane Katrina came to Colorado on Sunday, depositing shell-shocked survivors from New Orleans to the foot of the Rocky Mountains.
In all, Colorado officials are expecting 1,000 evacuees to be housed at the former Lowry Air Force Base in Operation Safe Haven.
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By midmorning Sunday, 125 storm victims had arrived aboard a Frontier Airlines jet from New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport. They were ultimately bound for a nondescript, vacant Community College of Aurora dormitory at Lowry.
"This is a major logistical operation," Gov. Bill Owens said, as he assisted evacuees. "These people have been through so much, but they're so gracious. They're just glad to be here."
Four more planes are expected to fly into Buckley Air Force Base today.
In addition, 18 evacuees came to Denver Saturday evening on a Frontier flight as part of a relief effort organ-ized by Volunteers of America. They are being housed in area hotels.
Destination unknown
The Operation Safe Haven evacuees, riding to their new homes on RTD buses, waved through tinted windows and gave the thumbs-up sign.
The bedraggled evacuees had boarded the plane with no idea where they would end up. At first, the plan was to send them to Texas.
For many, it was their first visit to Colorado.
As such, they were told to breathe deeply, use sunscreen and drink water to ease the transition from their below sea-level hometown.
Once at the college's gym, they were screened for illnesses. Most of the evacuees were in good condition, considering the unsanitary conditions they'd lived in for a week, said Capt. Kevin Moffitt, spokesman for the Aurora Fire Department.
One woman was hospitalized for diabetes complications but was later released. A man was treated for a heart condition, officials said.
The remainder received food and water, a change of clothes and a bag of toiletries. The group's meager belongings fit on a few rectangular tables, mostly contained in duffle bags, backpacks and plastic bags. One person's belongings consisted of a box of glazed doughnuts and a large yellow flashlight.
Various state and local staff tried to assess their needs, for everything from food stamps to crisis counseling. They received identification cards, and the few children in the group got teddy bears.
Then they were assigned dorm rooms.
Despite the thousands of miles between them and their former homes, they seemed happy.
Off his rooftop
Michael White, 49, who worked as a hotel bellman in New Orleans, said he was plucked off his rooftop by a helicopter after surviving three days on canned food and dry beans.
He hasn't heard from his 18- and 26-year-old sons or his two sisters.
Plunked down in Aurora, White said he just wanted "to walk around a bit and ease some of the tension."
"I thank God I'm somewhere safe and dry," White said.
Brenda Lomax, 60, echoed his gratitude even though she hasn't heard from her 89-year-old mother since the day the storm hit. Her mother hadn't wanted to evacuate, so Lomax left her with a friend on the fourth floor of a downtown building.
Still, "It feels so good," the Greta, La., woman said. "I took a good whiff. It smells so good. It's clean."
Lowry, she said, is a stark contrast from the convention center in New Orleans, where the air was filled with the stench of "rotting food, rotting animals, rotting bodies."
Lomax said the city could have survived the hurricane - if the damage had been limited to the wind.
"It's just thatwater," she said, referring to the levee breaches. "That water just came up so fast."
Despite it all, Lomax wants to return.
"That's my home," she said. "I'm not leaving my home."
U.S. to reimburse state
State officials say they have no idea how long the evacuees will be here.
Owens said he has been assured the federal government will reimburse the state for money spent on the operation.
Already, the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, through its divisions of housing and local government, had earmarked $1 million through Community Development Block Grant funds to pay for cots, bedding and food.
Colorado is also sending 700 National Guard troops to assist in Louisiana. Owens said three convoys have already left.
The governor also signed an order waiving fees at Colorado Ports of Entry for commercial vehicles carrying supplies for the hurricane victims.
Though many details are yet unknown, one thing evacuees can count on is volunteer help from Coloradans.
More than 800 people, both volunteers and staff, showed up to help Sunday.
Tenise Norman, of Aurora helped clean the dormitory for the newcomers.
While helping them settle in, she noticed most were black.
"Me being African-American, it broke my heart," she said, tears welling up in her eyes.
"It just broke my heart."
Jerrell Bland was turned away because, at age 13, he was five years short of the minimum age for volunteers.
"I think they should let the young guys help," he said. "Because the young guys have the strongest muscles."
Welcome to schools
Veronica Apav, 39, hopes her youngsters can enroll in school soon. Owens said all children can attend metro districts, such as Denver, Aurora or Cherry Creek, within two or three days.
Apav and her five children lived through "pure hell" at the convention center in New Orleans.
For her, the worst part of the experience was the lawlessness. There was also no food and no water for bathing or drinking.
"It was like we were left in the place to die," Apav said.
"It was a place to play, to shoot and to kill."
She and her family had guns held to their heads three times, she said, as they were forced to the ground.
"I felt for sure somebody would shoot me or shoot one of my kids," Apav said. "I was shocked something like this was going on in the United States of America."
Every day, bodies wrapped in white sheets wereremoved from the building, Apav said.
She and her children also stayed three nights on the Interstate 10 overpass, which Apav described as "pure pandemon-ium."
She continues to wonder why the "most powerful military on Earth" couldn't subdue the armed thugs of New Orleans.
But coming to Colorado is the first step toward a new life.
"I feel beyond lucky," she said.
