‘Please Don’t Kill Me’: Brewton Family Sheltered in a Bathtub as Isaias Tore Apart Their Trailer

BREWTON, Ala. — Joseph Lawrence and Savanna Roberts thought they were being careful. As Hurricane Isaias closed in on Escambia County on Friday, Oct. 9, the Brewton family moved into the bathroom of their trailer home on Foshee Road, a few miles outside town, about an hour before the worst of the storm arrived.

Within that hour, the trailer began to come apart around them.

“We were in the bathroom about an hour before things got really bad, just because we wanted to be prepared,” Lawrence said Monday, Oct. 12, standing amid the wreckage of the home. “And all of a sudden, the whole trailer started shaking, and the insulation started falling from the roof. And that’s whenever I put her and the kids in the bathtub and put a mattress over them.”

‘I was terrified’

Roberts said the night ranks among the most frightening experiences of her life. Crammed into a bathroom too small for the whole family, she tried to stay calm for the couple’s four young children while the wind battered the walls.

“It basically sounded like a roller coaster, just full of wind and just like pushing our bodies, and the kids just screaming and praying to God. … ‘Please don’t kill me. Keep my kids safe,’” she said. “I was terrified that me and my children were not going to make it out.”

They did make it out. But the trailer did not survive in any livable form, and the family is now without a home.

What they lost

On Monday, Lawrence and Roberts sorted through what remained of their belongings. Roberts said they managed to save a few things, but most of what they owned was gone, including:

• All of their clothes.
• Family photographs and other irreplaceable keepsakes.
• Most of their other possessions.

The family did not carry renters insurance. They have set up a GoFundMe page and an Amazon wish list to help them start over.

Amid the debris, the couple found one item that had traveled a long way. A sign that once hung in their kitchen had been thrown into the wall of a neighboring trailer. It read: “Accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be.”

A decision to stay

Roberts said that as the storm approached, she suggested the family leave for her mother’s house. Lawrence wanted to stay put, and the family rode out the storm at home.

Looking back, he said he underestimated what was coming.

“I thought everybody was overreacting, but she thought we – I should listen to my wife, you know?” he said.

Sheriff: several trailers damaged, residents displaced

The family’s experience was among the most harrowing in a county that officials now describe as the hardest hit in Alabama. Escambia County Sheriff Heath Jackson said Isaias damaged several trailer homes in the county. Among the damage he described:

• A man trapped for hours. One damaged trailer trapped a man inside for several hours.
• Apartment residents displaced. About 20 apartment residents in East Brewton were forced out of their homes by storm damage.
• A college campus littered with trees. The hurricane left uprooted trees across the campus of Coastal Alabama Community College in Brewton.

Over the weekend, Jackson had described how quickly conditions deteriorated as Isaias swept inland. Two deputies sent to an emergency call were unable to reach it because fallen trees blocked the road, and emergency crews could not initially get to a mobile home destroyed by the wind because conditions were still too dangerous to travel. Brewton police imposed a 7 p.m. curfew Saturday, Oct. 10, as crews worked to clear streets choked with trees and power lines.

Getting supplies to a rural county

As power crews work to restore electricity across Escambia County, Jackson said he has been trying to coordinate the distribution of water and other necessities. The county’s rural geography makes that difficult.

“It’s always easier to, you know, set up in the city,” Jackson said. “You know, ’cause most people can walk to get to those areas to get supplies. You know out in the county, sometimes you have people that are five, six, seven miles away from the next person.”

State emergency officials have described the same challenge. The Alabama Emergency Management Agency has delivered pallets of bottled water and meals to the area, and relief groups including World Central Kitchen, the Salvation Army, Samaritan’s Purse and others have set up in and around Brewton. The harder task, officials say, is getting those supplies to families scattered along county roads miles from town.

Why mobile homes are so vulnerable

The family’s ordeal illustrates why emergency managers single out mobile and manufactured homes before every hurricane. The National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center advise residents of mobile homes to leave for a sturdier structure before a hurricane arrives, regardless of how far inland they live, because even well-anchored manufactured homes can be badly damaged or destroyed by hurricane-force winds.

Isaias showed how far inland those winds can reach. The storm made landfall near Destin, Fla., Friday night as a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds, but forecasters said a band of extreme winds known as a sting jet swept up the storm’s western side and into Escambia, Conecuh and Monroe counties in Alabama, toppling trees and snapping power poles well away from the coast.

For people who cannot leave, standard safety guidance calls for sheltering in the most interior room of a sturdy building, away from windows, and protecting heads and bodies with mattresses, blankets or helmets, much as Lawrence did when he covered his wife and children in the bathtub.

Help for displaced families

For renters like Lawrence and Roberts, the loss of belongings can be especially hard to recover from. Renters insurance typically covers a tenant’s personal property, such as clothing and furniture, and can help pay for temporary housing when a home becomes unlivable. Without it, families often depend on relief organizations, community fundraising and any government assistance that becomes available.

Escambia County residents who have lost their homes or need help can turn to several sources:

• 211: The Alabama Emergency Management Agency is directing residents with unmet needs to call 211, which connects callers with local relief resources.
• American Red Cross: The Red Cross helps people displaced by disasters with shelter, supplies and casework. It can be reached at 1-800-RED CROSS.
• Hot meals: World Central Kitchen is serving meals from noon to 3 p.m. Tuesday at 117 Forrest Ave. in East Brewton.
• Federal assistance: Escambia County is included in a federal declaration for Isaias. Residents should document all damage with photos and keep receipts in case additional federal help for individuals becomes available. FEMA does not charge to apply.

People who want to donate to families affected by the storm are urged by consumer advocates to give carefully, confirming that a fundraiser or charity is legitimate before sending money and avoiding links in unsolicited texts or emails.

For now, Lawrence and Roberts are focused on keeping their children safe and finding a way forward. The sign from their kitchen, which landed against a neighbor’s wall, offered advice they are trying to follow: accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be.