By Khalida Sarwari
Immediately after Santa Clara resident Rena Salomon became a naturalized U.S. citizen in Campbell this morning, she applied for an emergency visa to visit Haiti next week where she hopes to concentrate her efforts on working with orphans.
Nearly five years ago, the 44-year-old mother of four saw the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina and the lack of emergency responders, and felt compelled to visit the beleaguered region.
So she drove her Hummer across state lines to New Orleans to rescue people out of dilapidated homes and bring them to a shelter she had established at a church.
Since then, she has been known as the “Angel in a Hummer,” a name given to her by two people she rescued in the French Quarter.
“They said I dropped out of the sky with my Hummer,” she said, adding that the car now holds sentimental value to her.
Salomon is a citizen of Jordan who came to the U.S. when she was 3 years old and has been living in Santa Clara since she was 4. She is a general contractor and owns Maxim’s Restaurant in San Jose.
She said the swearing-in ceremony at the Heritage Theater in Campbell this morning was both exciting and emotional for her.
“One thing I didn’t realize is that I can vote now, which is a huge monumental thing for me,” Salomon said.
Following the ceremony, Salomon drove her Hummer to the passport agency in San Francisco to apply for an emergency passport. She plans on leaving to Haiti sometime early next week with her fiance, her sister-in-law and two Katrina survivors, on the first of what she expects to be several trips.
“The most devastating part for me are those children,” Salomon said. “Whether they’re orphaned or left without parents, it’s just breaking my heart.”
She said her focus will be providing shelter to the orphans and she will try to bring some children back with her on an interim basis to a vacant 10,000-square feet compound that she owns in San Diego.
“I’m a very hands-on person, I saw the outpouring of money being raised by the Red Cross and it puzzles me why it’s taking so long to get aid to these people. I want to see where my help is going,” she said.