Sept. 1, 2005

By Adam Lucas

Otis and Bettie Sanders have a hole in their roof, water damage, and car damage.

In other words, it's been a very good week.

Several members of Tar Heel basketball player Byron Sanders's family--including his parents, Otis and Bettie, along with brother Otis, Jr. and a pair of aunts and uncles--live in Gulfport, Mississippi, an area ravaged by Hurricane Katrina earlier this week. News footage has showed heartbreaking scenes from Gulfport, New Orleans, and other cities across the region this week, but Byron Sanders doesn't have to see video to understand the situation. He's lived it. And the way he's lived it shaped his family's decisions as they decided how to handle the storm.

"During Hurricane George (in 1998) we left and our house got robbed," he said. "So this time (my parents) stayed to protect the house."

That's right. When one of the worst natural disasters in American history was steaming over the city, Otis and Bettie Sanders--the most loyal Tar Heel fans in Gulfport--were holed up in their home on Robin Lane. Otis Sanders is a regular at Carolina home games, where he frequently makes the 11-hour (each way) drive to watch his son play, sometimes toting a batch of Bettie's homemade macaroni that is one of Byron's favorites.

But on Monday, they didn't want to be on the road. They wanted to be at home.

Cell phone service remained active throughout Sunday night and Monday, so Byron was able to communicate with them regularly. The Sanders family lives about 10 minutes inland from the coast, a distance that may have saved their home.

"There's a hole in the roof and it's leaking," Byron said. "They've got some water damage and car damage. But they said it was OK."

OK, of course, is relative in this situation. But his family survived the ordeal well enough that he could even crack a smile on Thursday afternoon as he lamented another piece of damage done by the storm.

"My old-school is kind of messed up," he said.

His old-school, for those not fluent in Tar Heel media guide-ese, is his 1967 Buick Skylark. It's been in the family for decades, and one of the first interesting facts any Tar Heel fan ever knew about Sanders was what he announced in the media guide his freshman season--"I like to work on my 1967 Buick Skylark."

Continuous pleading for Sanders to bring the Skylark to Chapel Hill has gone unfulfilled, as he says it might not be up for the drive. But it'll need even more work now, as it took some damage on Monday. The exact extent of the damage is known only by Otis and Bettie Sanders--they haven't broken the news to their son yet.

Right now, they have more important things to consider. Otis, Jr., a 30-year-old Marine, drove to Atlanta yesterday to secure a variety of supplies--"gas, water, whatever he could get from Wal-Mart," Byron Sanders said. Byron and his sisters, Devin and Angela, wired money to help with the purchases.

The 6-foot-9 senior will travel with the Tar Heels to the Bahamas this weekend for a pair of exhibition games. Basketball helps take his mind off the destruction in his hometown and other local cities--it was just two summers ago that he went to New Orleans on a quick summer vacation. But when he returns from practice, when the pleasant Chapel Hill evenings are underway and he's called or sent a text message to everyone he knows at home, he can't help but turn on the television.

"I watch the coverage every night," he said. "That's what I fall asleep to."

How you can help: Sanders said Thursday he is not aware of any Gulfport-specific relief efforts and suggested Tar Heel fans who want to help should give to the Red Cross (800-HELP-NOW). A group of concerned Carolina fans have suggested "$41 for 41," with the idea that every Tar Heel fan who wants to help can give $41 (or some multiple thereof) in honor of Byron and his family.

Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.