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Dispatcher makes best of worst situation

She took emergency calls during Hurricane Katrina and brings that experience, and the memories from it, with her to the Sheriff's Office.

By STEVE THOMPSON
Published December 6, 2005

	Monique Leverette worked for the Moss Point police in Mississippi before moving with her family to Hudson to apply at the Sheriff's Office.

NEW PORT RICHEY - When she interviewed for a job at the Sheriff's Office, Monique Leverette was asked to describe the hardest situation she has faced as a dispatcher.

The answer came easily to her.

Leverette was a dispatcher for Moss Point police in Mississippi. During the winds and flooding of Hurricane Katrina, she was forced to tell those who called that they were on their own - that, no, help was not on the way.

She said one of the calls came from a woman she went to church with. Even now, three months after the storm, she still remembers the panic in the woman's voice.

"They were trying to get out in her husband's pickup truck, and the water was coming up the driveway," Leverette said. "They ended up coming back in her house. By that time, the water was rushing in."

And Leverette recalls the dismay in her own voice as she took down names and details from her friend, and the next caller, and the next.

Her friend survived. So did Leverette and her family, though the call center had to be evacuated before the storm was over. And the home Leverette shared with her husband and their three boys filled with water.

Days later, she met Lisa Barabas Henry, who runs the Holy Ground homeless shelter in Hudson and had gone to Mississippi to bring relief supplies. Leverette agreed to take names and numbers of people who might need Henry's help.

A couple of weeks later, Henry called her with a proposition. The Sheriff's Office in Pasco had dispatcher positions to fill, Henry said. Why shouldn't Leverette and her family come to Florida so Leverette could apply?

After some thought, Leverette and her family did. Henry returned to Mississippi with more relief supplies, and when she departed, the family's minivan followed her south. They left their flooded one-story brick home behind, though they are still responsible for its mortgage. How they will fix and sell it, they are not yet sure.

A few weeks ago, they returned to visit Mississippi, where many of their friends and family remain.

"It was hard," said Leverette, 35. People there still live in gutted homes, she said, and in tents. "We've been able to start our lives over and try to get some of the things that we lost back. A lot of people haven't."

With Henry's help, the Leverettes got settled and moved into an apartment in Hudson. They like it here, Leverette said. The boys, ages 3, 6 and 9, are adjusting to school. Her husband, Christopher, has become a minister at the Holy Ground. They plan to stay.

And Leverette got the job.

On Nov. 14, she became a dispatcher at the Sheriff's Office.

--Steve Thompson can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6245 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245. His e-mail address is sthompson@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 6, 2005, 02:15:34]