Can't see the Packer's heads being in the game tonight. Too many more important things to worry about other than a meaningless preseason game on the road.
Posted Sep. 01, 2005
Packers blown away by hurricane?s fury
Packers quarterback Brett Favre speaks Wednesday about how his family in Mississippi is coping in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
By Dylan B. Tomlinson
PackersNews.com
Hurricane Katrina has turned the lives of millions of people upside down. Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre is just one of them.
Favre?s childhood home in Kiln, Miss., has been destroyed. His home near Hattiesburg, Miss., where he lives with his wife, Deanna, and his daughters, Brittany and Breleigh, has been damaged.
Much of New Orleans, which was where Favre helped lead the Packers to a win in Super Bowl XXXI, is under water.
But, for the most part, Favre knows his family is safe.
That puts him in better shape than a couple of other Packers players.
Wide receiver Javon Walker?s grandparents, Lucille and Paul Goldsmith Sr., and his uncles, Paul Goldsmith Jr. and Earl Goldsmith, all of whom live in Moss Point, Miss., are missing.
Linebacker Ray Thompson, who lives in New Orleans, has not heard from anyone in his family since Katrina hit.
?I haven?t heard from anyone and I?m sure I won?t for a while,? Thompson said.
?I?m just praying to God that they?re all right, but there?s nothing I can do about it. It?s scary. It?s really difficult.?
Walker stood up at a news conference on Wednesday in the hopes that someone would see it and get word back to him or his parents if they know the whereabouts of his grandparents and uncles.
?If this message can be relayed to Moss Point or Biloxi, we have no way of getting in contact with them,? Walker said.
?They?ve been missing for two days now. They?re missing and we?re trying to find them.?
On Tuesday morning, Favre had yet to hear from his mother, Bonita, but was able to talk with her briefly Tuesday afternoon with the help of a reporter from Houston who was covering the hurricane.
?She happened to stop a news van from Houston, of all places,? Favre said. ?The guy from Houston had just seen the interview I?d done yesterday. My mom stopped this van and said ?Hey, can you make a phone call?? knowing that he had satellite.?
While talking to his mother, Favre found out that his family was OK but the home he grew up in was destroyed.
?To think that the water would rise up to the level of the house is just beyond my belief. To even think that it could get 8 feet up into that house is even more amazing,? Favre said. ?Fortunately, they survived. They got up in the attic.
?My older brother, Scott, was swimming around the house trying to get the kids. My younger brother, Jeff, has three little kids. They were trying to get them up in the attic. My grandmother, who is almost 90, they were trying to get her up in the attic or on top of a washing machine or a counter or whatever. Fortunately, they all survived. But now, as bad as that was, the worst is yet to come.?
Favre?s mother and his two brothers are safe, but they are without food or power. Favre said his understanding is that it could be months before power is restored.
?They have nowhere to go. There?s no power. When they will get power? They?re saying two months,? Favre said. ?If you?re first in the line, it may be a week. If you?re last, it may be two months. Where they start and where they finish, I don?t know.?
Thompson said the situation is even more dire in New Orleans.
?There?s no drinking water. The toilets are backed up. There?s no power, no electricity and there?s no telling when help will arrive,? Thompson said. ?If you?re not from the South, you don?t understand that once that levee breaks, you?ve got snakes, you?ve got alligators, you?ve got everything going through the city.?
Thompson said it?s gotten to the point where he can?t watch the news without getting distraught.
?I turn on the TV and I have to turn it off because it?s all bad news,? Thompson said. ?I really feel like I can?t watch anymore.?
The news was much better for running back Walt Williams.
Williams, whose family lives in Baton Rouge, La., about 80 miles north of New Orleans, said he had heard from his wife that she and his four children were OK and that only minimal damage was done to his house.
?When I called and I found out that just a fence had fallen down, I was very relieved,? Williams said. ?I don?t care about any of that stuff. I just wanted to know that everybody was OK, and thankfully, they are.?
The Packers left Wednesday afternoon for tonight?s preseason finale against the Tennessee Titans in Nashville. Packers coach Mike Sherman has said any player who wants to try to be with his family after the game is welcome to go.
Favre said the decision of whether to try to get to his family is something he?s struggled with the last few days.
?I probably slept two hours last night, and the whole time I slept, I had nightmares about should I go or should I stay? If I go, what do I do? If I don?t go, how guilty will I feel for not being there?? Favre said. ?If I come down, will I be more in the way, even if I?m at my house? If you?re struggling to find food, I?m not going to come in and all of a sudden be able to get food. Am I getting in the way? Am I eating one more sandwich that the kids could have shared?
?Until power is hooked back up, until there are places where you can go get gas and you can go get something to eat, I?m better off being here.?
Favre, with the help of equipment manager Red Batty, rounded up generators and other emergency supplies and put them on the team?s chartered plane before it left for Tennessee in the hopes of getting them to his family.
?We?re bringing a bunch of food and drinks and water on the plane, and when we get to Nashville, there?s going to be a guy to drive this to Hattiesburg,? Favre said. ?From there, hopefully, we can disperse this even further south.?
Favre said he has talked to his wife ?three or four times? since the hurricane hit, and while there has been quite a bit of damage near their home, it?s nowhere close to what happened on the Gulf Coast.
?Hattiesburg is not as bad as far as water damage. Obviously, being 60 miles inland, it was not hit with as much water damage,? Favre said. ?The back part of our property flooded due to a creek that runs through the back. I would assume the power and the communications will be set up there quicker than on the Gulf Coast.
?The Gulf Coast is gone. They?re going to have to start completely over. They?re going to have to bulldoze everything.?
Favre said there are around 50 people staying with Deanna and his daughters near Hattiesburg, and a similar number are with his mother and brothers in Kiln. While Favre said he would love to know that all of his loved ones are in one place, he knows that?s not realistic.
?It?s not like Mom, Scott and Jeff can drive up with food and they can all have a cookout,? Favre said. ?Pretty much everybody is better off staying put. I?m not just talking about my family.?
With the damage Katrina has done to the Gulf Coast, Favre said it will take a long time for the area to recover, and he seemed to wonder whether that was even plausible.
?This is really a lot like the tsunami on a smaller scale,? Favre said. ?Rebuilding is going to take not weeks, not months, not years. Two years? No. Ten years? Maybe.?
Favre said he wants to bring his family up to Green Bay, but said he doesn?t know how soon that will be realistic.
?There is that thought, but you can?t fly in or out right now. The Gulfport airport may not be open for five months,? Favre said. ?At some point, they may drive up here, but who knows when anything will be functional again.?
Favre realizes he has no control over the situation and doesn?t know what he can do to help his family recover from the disaster.
?Right now, the dust is settling and all you can do is think, ?Where do we go from here? Where do you start??? Favre said. ?You can?t call the local carpenter to come build your house. His house is gone, too.?
Dylan B. Tomlinson writes for The Post-Crescent of Appleton.
