“Rescue Ma”

By Diana Cain

July 7^th, 2008

     Most Texans have heard of the expression, “I wasn’t born here, but I got here as fast as I could,” but few have waited 87 years to make it happen.  Due to the catastrophic floods in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, last month, Murphy’s newest resident is Martha Cain, born on the Fourth of July, 1921.

     When her son Robert and daughter-in-law Diana, teachers at Plano Senior HS, received Martha’s phone call June 11^th, relaying she had all of five minutes to evacuate her apartment in a senior center downtown, disbelief was their first reaction.  However, Rob’s former career as a Foreign Service officer proved invaluable as he leaped into action, arranging a rescue mission.

     Alongside 200 of her elderly neighbors, Martha spent the first two nights in Red Cross shelters, as the waters of the Cedar River relentlessly engulfed the metro lovely, second-largest city in Iowa.  Describing her experience on an Army cot with minimal amenities and no privacy, Martha simply says, “It was horrible.”  Fortunately, by Friday, June 13^th, Good Samaritans from the community converged upon the shelters, some of which had lost power due to the floods.  Martha was lucky to spend the next day and night with Paul and Marsha Sabotta and their three teen-age sons.

     Meanwhile, after a marathon of web-surfing and phoning, Rob secured the last seat on the only flight headed toward the vicinity of Cedar Rapids from Dallas: Moline, Illinois.  By noon on Saturday, he managed to borrow his mother-in-law’s car in Davenport, and despite numerous interstate and secondary road closings, take off for his hometown, now largely buried under 32 feet of record-breaking waters.  A trip that would normally take 90 minutes lasted more than three hours, but by mid-afternoon, Rob was reunited with Martha at last.  After brief introductions, heartfelt thank you’s, tears, and hugs, they headed back to Davenport in a driving rainstorm. 

    The remaining week with Diana’s mother, Millie Burke, heaped one frustration after another upon them, as information from FEMA and the Red Cross was scant at best and non-existent at worst.  Fearing another Katrina-type tragedy was unfolding before their eyes, as the daily news reported more extensive flooding throughout the Midwest, Rob decided midweek to move his mother to Murphy for the duration.

    The next hurdle was clearing Martha through TSA security at the airport, despite her lack of a government-issued identification card.  Repeated pleas to the airline, explaining she was a flood evacuee who had escaped with only the clothes on her back, fell on deaf ears.  So believe it or not, 90-pound “Grandma Martha” had to be patted down, scanned with a wand and frisked in a TSA “secondary search” before she could board her flight to DFW.

    From the plane window’s view, the floods were truly astonishing: the University of Iowa campus looked like Monopoly toys floating in a brown soup; creeks swelled to raging rivers which morphed into lakes.  How quickly life had changed for Martha, who had been looking forward to the annual Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival, a traditional time for Rob and Diana to visit for her Independence Day birthday. Instead she had to leave behind everything she had ever known in her hometown, as well as all of her earthly possessions, the fate of which remains unknown.

    Now, everyday brings new surprises for Martha, who is delighted to discover northern Texas.  She’s enjoyed South Fork Ranch, several malls, Lake Ray Hubbard, and the Richardson fireworks, among other sites.  Rob and Diana encourage her to think as if she’s on an extended vacation, enjoying her own “apartment” in the upper level of their Murphy home.  Rob fired up the grill for bar-b-q on her birthday and Martha was thrilled to receive an encouraging letter from Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, outlining emergency resources.

     But when she calls friends in Iowa, she tells them her greatest joy has been in discovering the friendly welcomes, broad smiles, quick laughs and words of encouragement from Texans.  “Everything is really bigger in Texas,” Martha says with a smile.  And for now, it’s a whole lot better than what she had to leave behind.