The Ranger Online

Issue date: 5/18/06 Section: J School Travels

Media Credit: Mandy Derfler Kristi Heid, principal for Sabine Pass School, explains how Rita damaged the auditorium. Reconstruction costs will only partially be covered by insurance. Heid expects the auditorium will be ready for a state theater competition in the spring.

SABINE PASS - After Hurricane Rita, it took Kristi Heid four days to return to this coastal town of 600. Two weeks later, Heid converted a muddied building not 30 feet from her home, into a distribution center for residents.

From a hotel in Kemah, Heid made the hour and half trip daily back to Sabine Pass. As the principal of the town's lone school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, Heid used her credentials to gain access to damaged areas.

While salvaging the school's computer servers, Heid posted updates on the Internet for information-starved evacuees.

"You can't tell from what it looks like on the surface. But there was 2 to 6 feet of water in the homes with slick mud sulfur, silt and lots of ocean debris, in both the gymnasium and auditorium," Heid said.

On one occasion, while assessing the damaged roof below the school's lighthouse-like tower, she peered out through panoramic windows at the destruction below.

"This was an awesome view right after the storm. There was so much ocean debris that it was a little scary. It's almost like the ocean spit it back at us." she said.

Heid estimated 95 percent of the homes were destroyed and 83 percent of the population has returned to the area. Those not returning are mostly elderly people.

While working at the distribution center, Heid would call city government in Port Arthur of which Sabine Pass is a bedroom community. City officials were confused about who she was or who she was working with.

"I'd say I'm working for the city of Sabine Pass, and I need this stuff."

When school resumed on Oct. 25, after six weeks forced vacation, Heid and other administrators worked to return some normalcy to the students' lives.

"At home they don't have a house. You have to be patient when what little stuff you've saved is now in a tent next to a FEMA trailer," Heid said.

Continued...

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