Little did she know then that she would get "a new beginning" in Benton thanks to her niece, Lisa Woods, who rescued her from a shelter in Bossier City, La., five days later.

Within 72 hours of arriving in Benton last Saturday, Schommer, 46, received new hearing aids, new contacts for her eyes and a complete makeover. Woods, a stylist at Wild Ivy Salon in Benton, took Schommer to the Benton Area Chamber of Commerce on Saturday to register as an evacuee. "Everybody there took care of her immediate needs so quickly," Woods said. "Dr. Bill Simmons was able to get her new contacts. Dr. Lisa Richey was able to get her a hearing aid."

But before her new life began this week, Schommer survived the horrific conditions left by Katrina in New Orleans on inner strength that she said she never knew she had.

Dressed in new clothes provided by the Churches Joint Council on Human Needs, and with a new hairdo done for her by Woods, Schommer was able to tell her story despite a few trembles and tears.

She left her New Orleans home on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain on Aug. 28 to head out of the city on Interstate 10. "A 10-minute ride took me seven hours." She ran out of gas on the interstate, got off the highway to fill her gas tank and "when I tried to get back on the interstate, the police wouldn't let me."

Unable to evacuate the city, she went back to her house unaware of the ordeal she was about to endure.

She fell asleep on her couch that night and was awakened early the next day by water on her back, she said. Within 45 minutes, the water had reached nose level.

She said she looked outside and knew she was in trouble as her car slowly submerged in the floodwaters.

With two bags of canned goods, an ice chest, some towels and a photo album containing pictures of her late husband, Schommer climbed atop her roof to escape the rising water in her home. She had acquired the house after her father's death in March.

"I had just gotten it the way I wanted it. I looked down and my new couch was floating."

After about four hours on the roof, the cold caused by powerful winds and rain overtook her, she said. With a knife she had brought to the roof, Schommer cut some limbs off a nearby tree to provide a makeshift shelter.

The hut helped block some cold, she said, but "all I had were wet towels to cover myself with."

Although hard of hearing, she said she "could hear people screaming for help, but didn't know where the sounds were coming from." At that point, Schommer still had her hearing aids in place. She would lose them in the water later on her trek to shelter and safety.

"Helicopters would fly by me, I would yell for help, but evidently they thought others needed to be saved first."

Sometime Tuesday afternoon, a Jefferson Parish police helicopter flew over Schommer, sent down a basket and rescued her from the roof, she said.

"They took me and some others to a bridge. I figured I was going to Ochsner Clinic Foundation (a New Orleans hospital) for shelter." However, she was turned away when she arrived at the hospital.

"They told me to go to Zephyr Stadium in Metairie." Fatigued and devastated, Schommer began her journey to the stadium with no shoes on her feet. The distance from the hospital to the stadium is about five miles.

Schommer's hope of finding a shelter was shot down again. "I got to the stadium, I was told FEMA was supposed to set up a shelter there."

That wasn't the case. "I was told a Miami rescue group was going to set up there and there wasn't room for me. They told me to go back to the hospital."

Schommer turned around and started walking back toward the hospital. "I was going to tell them I was having a heart attack or something so I could get in."

However, on her way back to the medical facility, Schommer passed out in the median in front of Jefferson Parish Waterworks.

"I woke up to a guy grabbing my hand saying 'come on baby.' He took me inside [the Waterworks building] and fed me a Lean Cuisine, an orange and a cookie, and from 7 at night to 7 in the morning I slept on a cot in the air conditioning."

Those simple luxuries didn't last long. Later Wednesday afternoon the man who rescued her from the street arranged for someone to take her to East Jefferson High School, where a shelter was supposed to have been established.

"But there was no shelter there. So we went to a fire department across the street, and the man told them to make sure they took me to a shelter."

Schommer finally reached a shelter at Barnable High School. With her eyes tearing up, she said that when she arrived "they told me to 'grab a piece of concrete;' that was going to be my home."

Schommer's sense of loneliness and hopelessness quickly turned to a sense of belonging, however. "A couple grabbed me and took me under their wing."

In a large group of displaced individuals and families, "we were working together as a team." One boy went outside to pick leaves off a tree "so I would have something soft to sleep on." Another boy tied his big pants around my feet "to protect me from the mosquitoes."

She worked in the Salvation Army's food line "so I could bring some extra food to my group." For the small amount of time spent at the shelter, "they were my family and they thought I was their guardian angel."

While a bond had developed among Schommer and the others, an unrelenting need to leave the shelter overwhelmed them, she said. As the leader of the pack, Schommer left in search of gas to fill up the couple's car so she and six others could leave.

"I saw a gas can in front of a house, knocked on the door; no one was home, so I took it." Recalling the event, she said "I feel guilty about taking it, but we had to get out of there."

Later, back at the shelter, "I asked a police officer to please get us some gas. He said he had confiscated it. So I got another one, and I asked him again and he said he had confiscated it."

Schommer didn't give up. "I got another one and went to him and said, 'please, I'll do anything.' He gave me the gas can filled with gas and said to not tell anyone what he did."

"I took the gas can back to the group and said 'we're outta here, y'all.' "

In a small car packed with seven people, including one pregnant woman, the group made it to Bossier City, La., by late Thursday. At a rest stop on the way, Schommer was able to text-message her sister to let the family know she was OK and on her way to Bossier City, which is just east of Shreveport. Her sister and family had evacuated from New Orleans to their brother's house in Walker, which is just outside Baton Rouge.

At a shelter in Bossier City, a woman paid for a hearing aid for Schommer, as well as nerve and pain medicine and Zoloft "because I was so shaken." Another couple wanted to "adopt me," she said.

Schommer told her recently developed "family" goodbye when her niece came Friday night to bring her back to Arkansas. "I'm am so happy to be with my family. I love Arkansas. Lisa had a room ready for me. This is a new beginning for me."

Woods said she "was really worried about Julie and the rest of my family. I cried everyday watching the news because I didn't know what was going on."

She said she "had to focus on doing something, so I started cleaning out a room. I didn't know who I was going to take in, but I was going to take in somebody."

Schommer said she plans to make Benton her home, though she said she would like to go back to her lakefront home to determine what she could salvage.

Her niece has no qualms about Schommer moving in. "I think I'm gonna keep her."

"We're survivors. Anybody can be a survivor, but we're overcomers," Woods said.

She said she was surprised at Arkansans' support of Katrina evacuees . "Their hearts have been pouring out."

Her voice cracking, Schommer said she is overwhelmed with the support shown to her since coming to Benton. "Everybody has been wonderful. I'm floored."

The two couldn't say enough about Lynn Hart, a county employee who assists County Judge Lanny Fite. Hart helped take Schommer different places and make arrangements for her.

By Jillian McGehee