Kim Crosby will make her 10th career Busch Series start Saturday night. Credit: Austostock

Katrina hits home for Busch racer Crosby

Louisiana resident views outpouring of support a blessing

FONTANA, Calif. -- Like so many folks in the Gulf Coast these days, Kim Crosby's perspective has changed recently.

Crosby, who drives the No. 26 Chevrolet in the Busch Series, lives in Slidell, La. She and her husband, Chris, evacuated the area Sunday and headed to Vicksburg, Miss.

	Kim Crosby resides in Slidell, La. Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Immages
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Crosby received verification that her house survived the storm. Still, it will be months before it's inhabitable.

"I'm one of the lucky ones," said Crosby. "We were able to get out of the path of the storm and we'll have something to come home to. So many people didn't have a way to leave and now are being forced to evacuate as their homes are being destroyed by the flood.

"We have all the trees down in the yard, but that can be fixed," she said. "I cannot fathom what they have had to endure, what they are still enduring."

Crosby said she has watched some of the news coverage of the events of the past few days. She said people aren't getting the full story.

"Some of the things that are being shown over and over are the negative parts of what's going on in Louisiana and Gulfport (Miss.) right now," she said. "But there are so many wonderful things that are happening.

"We have neighbors that are helping one another. We have people that are missing and people are searching for them. We have people that are bringing things in from all over the United States."

And all throughout the neighborhood, as well.

"We're bringing lawn chairs over to friends of ours that don't even have anything to sit on," she said.

She added that an interesting thing has happened in her neighborhood since all communication technology is down. People are talking to one another.

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"It's really a blessing in disguise because people started talking with each other in a way that we used to a long time ago," she said. " 'Have you seen so-and-so? Yes, I saw so-and-so at this place yesterday. They were at the Home Depot trying to get ice and water.'"

Crosby, a former junior high school teacher in Slidell, says she's particularly concerned about the town's young people.

"[Some of] the students that I taught don't even have homes anymore. To have that situation going on is very stressful.

"Unless you've been there, unless you've woken up in it every morning," Crosby said, "you have no idea what's going on. What you see on television is just a very small version of what's going on.

"It is just absolutely incredible and devastating and we need your help."

Even with all the stress, Crosby said she really never considered the idea of not running in Saturday night's Busch Series race at California Speedway.

"This is what I love to do and this is a way for me to help the people back home and get out there with that car with the American Red Cross (a partial sponsor) on the hood and to get some people really stirred up and hear it from someone who's been experiencing it for the past week. I don't think there's any better thing that I can be doing right now.

"My husband is home helping people who need it and I'm here getting the word out."