By Mike Wright /Citrus County Chronicle

Doug Alexander sure knows how to make someone feel welcome.

The former Citrus County sheriff’s deputy and now pastor of the Church Without Walls handed over the keys and title to a 1992 Crown Victoria on Wednesday morning to a grateful Elizabeth Siggio.

The 32-year-old single mother of two young teenagers lived her whole life in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina ripped it apart.

She now calls Beverly Hills her home, thanks to the United Way of Citrus County and Technology Conservation Group, a Crystal River company that is paying a year’s rent. Nick Nicholas Ford in Inverness donated the car.

It’s almost too overwhelming to Siggio, who moved in with her mother Tania Palmer a few weeks after Palmer fled to Florida at the advice of her son, who works at Progress Energy.

“We are so blessed,” Siggio said. “We have received so much love and acceptance here.”

Her mom added: “I tell people I’ve just walked out of hell and come to Eden.”

Siggio’s sons — Trever, 14, and Timothy, 13 — attend Crystal River Middle School. They say the school is bigger than the one they attended back in Louisiana and that teachers have treated them well.

It was their deep faith that brought them through Katrina, riding out the storm with friends.

“It was awesome, actually,” Siggio said. “Scary. We watched oak trees coming out of the ground. One tree sagged like it was going to fall on the house, but it didn’t. There were people in there from ages 3 months to 87 years old. We were in a Christian home, thank God.”

She added: “God was around that house, he really was.”

After the storm went through, roads were impassable. It took three days for the family to get out because of the debris.

“We were barricaded in what was pretty much a cow pasture,” she said.

The air was hot and, very soon, full of stench. Dead cattle and other critters lay in the blazing early September sun.

Lines at gasoline stations stretched for miles. No air conditioning, no electricity. They relied on a battery-powered toy transistor radio to stay informed.

When Siggio was finally able to return to her home, most of it was gone.

“Praise God I wasn’t there,” she said.

Yet, her sadness came not so much of her house, but the city of New Orleans.

“The house itself was not as horrible as the city,” she said. “Seeing my friends’ houses — or not being able to see them ... it looks like bombs dropped all over the place.”

She heard and read about violent attacks taking place at the Louisiana Superdome and New Orleans Convention Center, both of which housed thousands of hurricane victims.

“It was disgusting, really horrifying,” she said.

Her brother worked at Progress Energy in Crystal River and urged her to relocate to Citrus County. She hooked up with Alexander at the Church Without Walls, which is trying to help relocated hurricane victims.

“They came here and had nothing,” Alexander said. “She wants to work, but has no transportation. They need some assistance. Basically, we’ve been giving her what we can.”

Siggio slid into the front seat of the Crown Victoria and her kids climbed in back.

She fired up the engine, then said with a smile: “I’m just driving off into the wind!”