Associate Athletics Director Gary Gallup usually entertains Nicholls sports fans on the Colonels Sports Radio Network with play-by-play of action happening on the field, but during the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina, he was the one listening to the “play-by-play” while cleaning up debris at his home.”It was extremely important for us to listen to that,” Gallup said. “During this time, people want accurate information, and I was a good listener.”

Gallup, a resident of Slidell, returned to his home the day after Katrina passed over Slidell. When he returned, he found about a foot and a half of water, along with only four pine trees still standing on his property where 16 once stood. The 12 that were no longer standing fell in different directions.

“The neighborhood looks like it has been bombed because everyone on my street lost everything in their house, and it is now piled on the curb,” Gallup said. “There are a couple of houses on higher ground and they only had tree damage. Those are few and far between. There are only two or three houses like that in the neighborhood.”

Gallup spent the next five days with no power and only peanut butter, crackers, chips and cookies to eat while working on cleaning up his house.

His only means of information about what was going on in the area came on a portable battery-operated radio. It was not until Gallup and his wife, Sharon, went to Houston to stay with his daughters did he see the damage that was done to New Orleans.

Gallup and his wife had evacuated to Hattiesburg, Miss., the day before the storm where they stayed with his son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. After passing through Slidell, the eye of the storm moved on to Hattiesburg resulting in a loss of power to the house at which Gallup and his wife were staying.

Because of the circumstances they were in, Gallup and his wife planned to go to Houston to stay with their two daughters. His daughter-in-law and her two children were also leaving to go to Illinois where Gallup’s son was at a golf tournament. Before they left, Gallup told his daughter-in-law to call his daughters in Houston and tell them their parents were on the way.

When the road was cleared, Gallup and his wife traveled down Interstate 59 back to Slidell in order to take a shorter route to Houston. In Slidell, I-10 was blocked, and they were rerouted to I-12, passing though Hammond. At this point, Gallup and his wife decided since they were near their house, they would go survey any damage.

“We lost a lot,” Gallup said. “We aren’t as bad off as a lot of other people. It’s one of those things that will bring you to your knees. It’s a very devastating thing and a sad thing.”

While Gallup was at home trying to clean up his house, his daughters still thought he was on his way to Texas.

“There was no communication and our daughters in Houston didn’t know if we were alive or not,” Gallup said.

It was only when Gallup and his wife went to a neighbor’s house for dinner that a friend of Gallup’s neighbor said he was going to Houston to stay with family. Gallup asked the man to contact his daughters and tell them their parents were safe and in Slidell. The friend was able to get in touch with his daughters and relay the information.

The Sunday following the hurricane, Gallup’s daughters arrived with food, five five-gallon cans of gasoline and a Coleman stove. Gallup and his wife were also able to get four bags of ice, two cases of water and a box of military-rationed food from the National Guard in Slidell. Although they could have received this aid everyday, Gallup said he and his wife did not take advantage of it.

Those in the athletics department are also aiding Gallup by completing tasks that he is unable to tackle at the moment.

When the Colonels played their first game at Indiana University on Sept. 10, Gallup said he was chopping down trees and unable to hear the game. The following weekend when the Colonels hosted Cheyney University, Gallup was able to resume his normal play-by-play duties.

“I was real disappointed I couldn’t make the Indiana game because of the hurricane and was not able to broadcast that one back for everybody,” Gallup said.

Gallup said he will miss this weekend’s game at North Dakota State because a storage pod is being delivered to his house, but he will be able to broadcast the rest of the Nicholls games.

Since the hurricane, an emergency leave program was approved by University President Stephen Hulbert and aided Gallup. The program allows employees affected by Katrina to use the month of September to reorganize their lives while still getting paid. During this past month, Gallup said he has been in his office “maybe five days.” He said he is thankful for Hulbert approving this program.

“I’m going to personally thank Dr. Hulbert for giving us this emergency leave to do what we had to do and still pay us because a lot of people don’t have this,” Gallup said.

Along with help from the emergency leave, Gallup has also received help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The agency gave him $2,000 to buy necessities.

Gallup said he talked to a contractor Monday and the soonest he can meet with him to get an estimate on the damage of his house is three weeks.

As to a time frame when his house will be back to normal, Gallup said, “It’s going to take awhile.