Casino workers from Gulf Coast regroup at Divi Carina Bay
By PATRICK JOY
ST. CROIX - In a last-minute decision hours before Hurricane Katrina roared into Biloxi, Miss., Regina Harvey and her family piled into a car and began an agonizingly slow evacuation to Alabama. Across town, Kim Walston already had left but ended up in the same town as Harvey.
When they returned to Biloxi, along with thousands of other residents, Harvey and Walston found a devastated city. Walston’s house was gone, along with everything she owned. Harvey’s second-floor apartment survived - although every apartment on the third floor was gone.
Neither had jobs. The casino where the two worked was leveled by the Category 4 storm.
But now, nearly two months after Katrina ravaged the Gulf coast, both are pulling their lives back together, and along with 13 other Biloxi residents, their journey has led them to St. Croix.
“I went to pick up my paycheck - my last paycheck - and they told me about this opportunity to come down here on a temporary basis,” Harvey said. “I decided to take it.”
Treasure Bay Casino, Harvey and Walston’s employer, also owns the Divi Carina Bay Casino on St. Croix’s East End. In a bid to help out in the relief and hold on to its employers, the company worked out temporary transfers for 15 of its staff. The employees are staying free in the resort’s rooms and are working at the casino while a temporary casino is being rebuilt in Mississippi. There is no time limit on their stay, but most will leave when a temporary casino is constructed in Biloxi sometime after the New Year.
“When you listen to all the stories, you want to do anything you can,” said Divi casino general manager Barbara Shattles. “We wanted to find them new jobs because we knew if we didn’t, we might lose them forever.”
The transferred staff say they are grateful for a chance to regroup in the Caribbean.
“It’s been wonderful,” Walston said. “People have gone out of their way to be helpful.”
Fellow Biloxi employee Dennis Winstine agreed.
“You couldn’t ask for a better place to come,” he said. “It’s been great. Everyone’s been real nice.”
Many of the temporary employees have left family behind. They plan to return to Biloxi and are optimistic that both their city and the casino industry will emerge stronger from the crisis.
“They’ll rebuild again,” Walston said. “And we’ll go back. I’m homesick right now. My 17-year-old daughter is back there. I’m trying to get her down here for a visit - that might make it easier.”
Not much has been easy in recent months for these Gulf Coast residents. And while St. Croix has been a surreal stop along what is sure to be a long road for many, it also has been a welcome opportunity for some to catch their breath.
“There it was like ground zero,” said Regina. “And then you come here and it is so beautiful. This has been an experience.”
Walston said the crisis and the trip to St. Croix has bonded the group.
“We’ve kind of become a family,” she said.
Source: Virgin Island Daily News