Inspire, Winter 2005

24 Winter 2005 W e are all fine. We evacuated out to Florida. e lost our house and all possessions. We live close to the water and the 25-foot storm surge wiped our house out. We will be going back tomorrow to survey the damage and see if anything is salvageable ….” And with those e-mailed words, the journey on the road to recovery in the aftermath of one of the worst natural disasters in American history started for Ray ’83 and Dana Mosley Johnson ’84. The Johnsons, along with their children Chase (20), Zachary (16), and Sydney (12), lost everything in the hurricane — everything, that is, except faith and determination. In reflecting on the loss, Ray said, “I can tell you that this disaster has given me a new perspective on life on earth. I have never been one to pursue after things, but losing everything, and then having nothing but a few sets of clothes, opened my eyes to just how fragile we are in this world and how futile it is to try and accumulate riches here on earth.” Ray is an engineer with the United States Air Force. He and Dana moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2001. Since they had been in Mississippi for several years, the Johnsons had been around hurricanes, though not actually in any — until Katrina. “As we watched Katrina cross Florida, we weren’t worried. Everyone thought it would turn north and hit the Florida Panhandle. But it kept drifting west,” Ray explained. Even so, they weren’t concerned because it was still just a Category 2 storm. But within hours everything changed. When Ray woke up Sunday morning and learned that Katrina had been upgraded to a Category 5 and that it was heading toward Mississippi, he became concerned. “I told Dana we were Finding Peace in the Eye of A Storm R a y ’ 8 3 a n d D a n a M o s l e y J o h n s o n ’ 8 4 leaving,” he recalled. “She was a bit disappointed because she wanted to experience a hurricane. I told her ‘no’ and to pack some clothes while my son and I placed sand bags around the house and secured everything in the yard.” That evening Ray and his family headed for Florida. After traveling for eight hours at speeds between 5-20 mph they found a hotel room in Tallahassee. The next day they were forced to leave the hotel, and so they traveled to Orlando where they stayed for a couple of days. “It was there where we found out that our house was destroyed,” Ray said. “Everyone was distraught. I had planned on taking the kids to Universal Studios, but no one was in the mood.” Instead the Johnsons headed back to Biloxi to personally see and assess the damage. “It was much worse then we had anticipated,” Ray continued. “The devastation was incredible in our subdivision. We were speechless when we finally saw our house. We walked around it for a few hours and found a few knickknacks, but little else.” With their house gone and no place locally to stay, the Johnsons went back to the hotel in Florida and devised a plan. They decided Dana would take the kids to stay with her mom in Huntsville, Alabama while Ray stayed with a friend in Ocean Springs, where he could continue to work and look for a new place for the family to live. “It was a very difficult time. We stayed in these living arrangements for about a month until the schools started to reopen,” Ray commented. The first to come back to Mississippi was their youngest daughter, Sydney. While Ray looked for a house, Sydney stayed with a family friend and attended a new school. Zachary soon came back and resumed his junior year of high school. “Although his school was not damaged, his hours were changed to 6 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. so the elementary school kids, whose school was destroyed, could use the high school building from 12:30 to 6 p.m.,” Ray shared. “ Ray’s daughter, Sydney, sorts through the rubble that was once their home. The Johnsons ... lost everything in the hurricane — everything, that is, except faith and determination. by Ces sna Ca ther ine Wins l ow