As the MMA World Tries to Help Disaster Victim, Government Bureaucracy Leads to Major Hurdles

TUF 26 Finale
UFC 206, Toronto, December 2016 Credit: Cageside Press

In mid-August through early September 2017, the United States of America found itself in the tyrannous path of Hurricane Harvey. The storm, which reportedly resulted in damage of more than $190 billion globally, left countless people homeless, broken, lost and hurt. One of those was Orange, TX’s Randy Lane, part of the Cyborg Nation fan community.

Hurricane Harvey’s connection to the MMA world first surfaced when UFC heavyweight Derrick Lewis took action, helping out those in need in his local Texas. The storm’s impact on the MMA community did not stop there, however. The hurricane, which made its final landfall in early September, affected one of the members of Cyborg Nation, Randy Lane. Cyborg Nation is in essence a fan community for followers of UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg. Randy’s story (recounted below) is harrowing, the response of MMA fans uplifting, yet the actions of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) problematic.

When it struck Orange, the storm began inflicting major damage within just hours. Randy’s son Brody and ex-wife Julie were forced to seek refuge at his apartment. Soon the situation worsened, resulting in Randy’s daughter Aubrey, his grandson Dylan, his son-in-law’s grandmother, and friend Bobby taking cover in an adjacent building. Son-in-law Jonathan, meanwhile, was holed up in hospital in Anahuac, TX — thirty minutes from Galveston. Even further from the rest of the group.

Before long, water levels started to rise. Julie, family pets in tow, needed to move up the stairwell. The others opted to wait for the water level to rise further before making a move. With the area never having seen so much flooding, Lane lacked experience in this particular crisis. With his car already broken down and water levels rising, the group was quickly cut off. Finally, they started spotting rescue boats.

“We were watching rescue boats go down the streets thinking, if it will just stop now we will be okay” Lane recounted. “Finally, boats pulled into [the] apartments and The Cajun Navy (an ad-hoc group of volunteer boat operators who formed following Hurricane Katrina) informs us that they [government officials] are getting ready to release water from the dam. We were downstream so it was only going to get worse. Just the year before, water was released from the dam and caused major damage to downtown Orange. We had no other option but to leave” said Lane.

Lane continued, recalling that “Aubrey was hesitant to leave because Jonathan was going to try and make it home the next day. I inform her about the dam and tell her we need to leave, so she at last agrees and gets her household ready.” Then came the evacuation. “We were told we’re being taken to a local church to stay there. Cajun comes back, loads Brody, Julie, and pets in the boat; they have to get a larger boat for granny and her wheelchair. About only twenty minutes later three boats show up one larger than the others. We get everyone in boats with help of those rescuing lifting Granny into boat.”

When it looked like things were going in the right direction, reality struck. “We arrived at the church only to find out there was no electricity, no food and we couldn’t stay there”  said Lane. “We were informed buses were coming to take us to Lake Charles Louisiana to the Civic Center. Lake Charles is about thirty minutes from Orange so Jonathan could still possibly reach us.” Only, that didn’t work out either. “Buses pass up the Civic center and take us to The Coliseum in Lake Charles. By this time, I had run into another friend, Alan, who had just had heart surgery and was having a very hard time getting around. I had a 5-way bypass in 2014, so I could understand his issues and told him to stick with us. We had to wait on a bus at The Coliseum for about an hour.  We were told several different things, from ‘we can’t stay here’ to ‘we can stay but pets must be left outside in the designated area,’ which was fine but there was no designated area.”

The frustration increased word by word as Lane continued, saying “We were finally put in the rodeo arena at The Coliseum. We were then told we must go to Alexandria, Louisiana. We realized Jonathan was going to try and reach us [his family], and the further we go the harder it’s going to be for him to reach us. We decided to wait as long as possible, hoping Jonathan can reach us and we all stay together. We were finally told everyone must be gone by 9 AM.”

After leaving, the Lane entourage faced another problem, finding a place to live, at least in the short term. “I find a motel, The Red Roof Inn, in Lake Charles that had two rooms. With no way to get there, the Lake Charles Police department offered to take us, pets and all, to the motel. By the time we reached the motel, Jonathan makes it there. I had my retirement check directly deposited as I offered to pay for rooms because the others didn’t have enough money.”

When it looked as if everything was about to crash and they were going to end up on streets, the MMA community sprang up to help Randy and his friends.

“It was at this time I was just posting on Twitter about our journey and I received messages from @80mercy [a fellow MMA fan] asking about our issues” Lane said. “Although we have never met she offered to pay for rooms and food. I was in awe of the offer. I did not know when the motel would become FEMA approved, that’s when I realized that without her help we would be on the streets fast. Mercy then paid for the room and food for all of us which was unbelievable.”

The support from a fellow Cyborg Nation member should have made Randy’s life easier during this period, but that wound up not being the case. Not that it had anything to do with the MMA world.

“[The Red Roof] became a FEMA approved motel, but after two days, they don’t ask if we were staying, they just tell us we have to leave because they reserved our rooms, while we slept, to someone else” Lane continued. “After hours of searching, we found rooms in Leesville, Louisiana. When we arrived in Leesville we were informed that that motel was not FEMA approved, but should become so anytime. I paid for the room. I handed my card to Aubrey and told her to get the room. Alan had been paid by now so he said he got his. What we didn’t know when we reserved the room was that they put us down for FEMA the whole time.”

“I informed them I wanted to pay for two days at a time but they still took funds out of my account for the full FEMA time. I didn’t realize what had happened until Jonathan tried to get a room and the card was declined.” Being forced to scramble, Lane said that “money was scraped together for the room. This was on September 3rd; FEMA started paying for the room at September 7th.” This confusion left a heavy dent financially. The money could have been refunded, but red tape is not permitting it to happen.

“When I sent in the receipt for rooms to FEMA, they claimed they didn’t see where I paid for anything. But clearly, the receipt shows we checked in on the 3rd, and they didn’t start paying until the 7th so somebody paid for the 3rd thru 6th. After FEMA started paying they stopped taking money from my card.”

In the meantime, the family weren’t allowed to return home. “I was told by the apartment management that they’d be contacting us on when we could come back. I received a call several days later that said they were letting us come back if we removed carpet, and that workers would be in soon to take out walls.” Unsure of the extent of the damage, Lane explained that “we waited for a couple of days because they were not letting anyone back into Orange. We kept our rooms until we could get back and assess the damage.”

Returning back home would have reduced a lot of stress but unfortunately, the hurricane had inflicted a lot of damage. “When we arrived in Orange there was a note on all downstairs doors, informing them that they were evicted and had a week to get everything out. This left two days for me and my disabled son to get all furniture out that had been destroyed and what little we could salvage. To get the deposit back we were told to get everything out of the apartment. Everyone was busy and all we had was an SUV to pack in the things we could salvage.”

His home wasn’t fit to be lived in, and with most of his money spent on hotel bills, Randy wasn’t left with many options in terms of finding a place to stay. It was then when his youngest daughter stepped in to help him. “My youngest daughter Nico informed us that there was a camper at her in-laws’ house. We could stay there for the time being. I hadn’t realized that the camper did not have a shower and was being used as storage, for the last person that lived there. We could go to her in-laws’ house to shower but they already had five other people staying with them, those who had lost everything”

After an excruciating wait, someone from FEMA finally contacted them. “Several weeks later I received a call from a FEMA inspector who wanted to see the apartment. When she arrived she could see that all walls were cut out four feet high, all the cabinets, all appliances had been taken out by maintenance due to the damage. She informed me that she could tell we lost everything. She asked about my vehicle and I informed her that I spent $1000 dollars for repairs and that it still needed some repairs to the computer system under seats, which sat in water for days. I was told within ten days I would hear from FEMA. It has now been over three months…”

Randy, however, wasn’t the only one who hasn’t received any assistance from FEMA. “I know of no one who lived at these apartments that has received assistance. My son and I now live in the garage of a house that Aubrey and Jonathan found. The garage has been turned into a bedroom for us and I’m extremely grateful for Nico and Aubrey for helping us with somewhere to stay.”

The situation wasn’t easy to deal with. The emotional trauma, the frustration of not getting a proper refund and the physical damage could have easily destroyed another man. Lane credits his martial arts training and the MMA community for giving him the strength to fight through this disaster. “Team MMA for Life, Cyborg Nation, and the MMA community have stepped up and helped us with a heater for the bedroom, and other finances. [It’s] very humbling. I started Taekwondo about 1967 under Grand Master Fred Simon and his life training has kept me from going off while dealing with FEMA and Congressman Brian Babin’s office.”

The entire story leaves as many questions as answers. While it’s great to see the MMA community come together, it’s also clear that FEMA dropped the ball in the case. Why was an entire community apparently left out of the recovery effort? Why has FEMA struggled with what should be a simple reimbursement process?

The MMA community, from fans to fighters, might be small in relation to the NFL, NBA and the like. But they didn’t, and shouldn’t, stay silent in cases like these. Just another way the sport has brought people together.