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Hurricane Katrina

Man prays relatives dodged disaster

A Tarpon Springs restaurant owner who grew up in New Orleans is waiting to hear that five of his brothers and sisters are okay.

By KATHERINE K. LEE
Published September 3, 2005

	MORE COVERAGE: MULTIMEDIA Multimedia: Continuing fallout Storm Watch blog

TARPON SPRINGS - He was born in New Orleans, five days before Hurricane Camille.

He cut his teeth on the cuisine, working in the kitchen of Commander's Palace.

He brought his bride to the French Quarter on their honeymoon, where their first stop was Pat O'Brien's, for the drink known as a hurricane.

He scattered his mother's ashes in the Mississippi River near the city in 2002.

"It was an old friend," said Bradford Sullivan, owner of Zante Cafe in Tarpon Springs, a place that serves a mixture of Creole, Greek, Italian and French cuisine amid New Orleans Saints memorabilia and a sculpture of the Louisiana Superdome.

Now the city that raised him lies in ruins, and all he can do is pray for the phone to ring.

Of his eight brothers and sisters who lived with their families in Hammond and Mandeville near New Orleans, he has heard from only three: the ones who evacuated before the hurricane to Atlanta, Florida and Texas.

Of the others, who either couldn't drive or simply didn't have a way out, there has been no word since Sunday.

"My brother George, I talked to him the day Katrina was supposed to hit, and he was going out to look for a generator," said Sullivan, 36.

"They didn't have any way to evacuate. Some of them are just poor country folks."

Sullivan grew up in Hammond, a town just north of New Orleans in Tangipahoa Parish. He spent nearly every weekend in New Orleans.

"We used to play along those levees," he said, with a small laugh. He has seen TV footage of his hometown, strewn with trees and unrecognizable.

"Now it looks like a Third World country," he said.

While he waits, Sullivan collects clothing to send to hurricane victims and checks from patrons made out to the Red Cross.

"I don't want to take cash," he said. He gives them bread pudding or tiramisu for each check they write - for $100, for $10, for $1.

"Whatever they want to give."

Sullivan and his family - wife Elizabet, 43, daughter Victoria, 8, and sons Christian, 11, and George, 8 - have talked about what could be happening to their cousins and aunts and uncles. They got their Scout troops to help collect clothing at the cafe and the Sullivan Gallery next door in downtown Tarpon Springs. The piles will be taken to the St. Pete Times Forum.

It's one of the few things Sullivan can do right now. That, and call his list of phone numbers every couple of hours, hoping someone will pick up on the other end.

But all he gets is a fast busy signal.

So he checks the obituaries online every day.

"As gory as it sounds, I haven't seen any deaths in the parish where my family lives," he said. "My brother is pretty resilient. I haven't heard from any of them, but I can only hope, since we've lived through these things before."

Soon, the members of his family who evacuated will return to Louisiana, and then, he figures, he'll know.

"I just hope no news is good news for now."

[Last modified September 3, 2005, 01:20:24]