[Renee Montagne:] Some hurricane evacuees did get to make a choice where they were airlifted, joining family members in Florida, Texas and elsewhere. Others were simply airlifted out of Louisiana, destination unknown. NPR's Ted Robbins reports.
[Ted Robbins Reporting:] Last Sunday night, Brian Harrison was grateful to finally be leaving New Orleans. A burly young man and his extended family of 18 had lost everything, but he was still disorientated. He was on a plane and he had no idea where it was going.
[Mr. Brian Harrison:] We kept asking once we caught word, `Where are we going?'you know? They wouldn't tell us. They didn't tell us where we was going till we touched down.
[Robbins:] They touched down in Phoenix and were taken to a shelter at Veterans Memorial Coliseum filled with volunteers and donated goods.
[Unidentified Woman #1:] ... [Unintelligible] any volunteers? I have a truckload of men's underwear. Can I get some help unloading the truck, please?
[Robbins:] Here, along with about 500 other evacuees, they got a shower, new clothes, a hot meal and some sleep. Red Cross spokeswoman Jennifer Leroy.
[Ms. Jennifer Leroy:] When they come in, they're in a state of shock, absolutely, but that shower, that meal and a good night's sleep really helps put, I think, some folks into focus, and think, `OK. Now this is what I'm going to do next.'So...
[Robbins:] What some do next is connect with the Phoenix African-American community. Almost all the evacuees here are African-American, and members of African-American churches in the Phoenix area are on site to meet and pray with them.
[Ms. Diane Daniels:] And we just reach out to meet the needs of the people and we just want to be a part of what's happening here.
[Robbins:] Diane Daniels is from Azusa World Ministries. She wears a blue T-shirt that says: Too Blessed To Be Stressed. Carrying a cell phone in one hand, she shepherds the entire extended family out of the shelter, from Brian Harrison, to lean unshaven 49-year-old Ronnie Armont, to a squinting child who has an instant reaction to the blazing Arizona sun.
[Unidentified Child:] Hot.
[Robbins:] Hot. But as they say here, it's a dry heat and it's fine with Ronnie Armont.
[Mr. Ronnie Armont:] It's beautiful. What I've seen of it, I like it.
[Robbins:] Of course, less than 48 hours earlier, Armont was being plucked off his New Orleans roof by a helicopter, on his birthday, no less. He was a music recording engineer in New Orleans. Now he's making plans for a new life in Arizona.
[Mr. Ronnie Armont:] We'll probably stay here from what I've seen so far. Get the children in school, get housing, get resettled, then I have to take care of some business back in New Orleans because I own two houses.
[Robbins:] At the moment, all 18 members of the family are loading into vans for a tour of central Arizona to see where they might want to live.
[Unidentified Man:] Hey, I forgot to ask you how old you were.
[Robbins:] Brian Harrison says it already feels like home because of the warmth of the welcome.
[Mr. Brian Harrison:] The love, the connections 'cause I feel like, you know, it's what God guided me to.
[Unidentified Woman #2:] OK. What's for dinner? We're having chicken, greens, corn bread, peach cobbler, coconut chocolate cake.
[Robbins:] A few hours later, the family and church members are chowing down at the community center in Coolidge, Arizona. Coolidge is a small desert town surrounded by cotton and alfalfa fields about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. It looks and feels nothing like New Orleans, but that doesn't matter to Brian Harrison.
[Mr. Brian Harrison:] You know, you never judge a book by its cover. You've got to at least read the introduction to see what the next page has to offer. And so far, you know, I'm willing to read the whole book.
[Robbins:] Ted Robbins, NPR News.
[Renee Montagne:] This is NPR News.