Summary Marie Barney [MB], age 69, told me she didn’t know how bad Hurricane Katrina was expected to be even as late as Saturday evening. She was distracted with the death and funeral of her late husband, Clarence Lyle Barney, Jr. [CB]. The funeral was held the day before she and her family evacuated. Her youngest son had a friend who got them reservations. They stayed at the hotel until they realized it would be a while and they decided to get an apartment with the help of the same friend who got...

Summary The Beltons are evacuees from New Orleans. They lost homes in New Orleans and Mississippi due to Hurricane Katrina. They are going home because they are homesick for the community that they had from home.Their story is about family and keeping track of the members throughout and after the hurricane. They lost property in two states and have a different idea of the life that they will lead from now on. They plan to cling to the simplicity that they were forced to embrace due to...

Summary Cedric Brown is a twenty-one-year-old man who lived in New Orleans and stayed through Hurricane Katrina. He tells his story about how he and his mother decided to stay and in New Orleans despite the Mayor’s mandatory evacuation dictate.He told how they were calm at first. His small family had gotten together at his mother’s home where they’d planned to wait it out. Thinking that nothing much was going to happen, they settled in to having good family time together. However, what...

Summary Darrel Holnes is a University of Houston student for his second college year. He was born here in Houston and raised in Panama City by his Panamanian parents. Aside from visits to the United States, moving to the New Orleans, Louisiana to attend Loyola University would have been his first time living in the United States since he was two weeks old.Darrel told me the story of how he was so very excited to attend Loyola University and how he had spent his time in New Orleans, on...

Summary Mr. & Mrs. Hudson evacuated from New Orleans to Houston as a result of Hurricane Katrina. They had a pleasant community life in New Orleans East. They knew many of their neighbors, practically all who lived on their block.They evacuated with family and to a hotel that Carol Hudson [CH] reserved for them. They watch the saga that was Hurricane Katrina unfold on CNN in disbelief. CH said that she was in denial at first. She eventually came to embrace the truth that she couldn’t...

Summary Larry Kraus [LK], age 46, is a Katrina/Rita survivor from Kenner a small city connected to New Orleans, Louisiana. Larry was born in Florida, was brought to Algiers, Louisiana (New Orleans, West Bank) by his parents, where he grew up with his twin sister, another sister and a brother. He left New Orleans for a good job in Houston at age 23.Twenty-two years later, he worked really hard to get a good job to return to New Orleans to be closer to his parents who were having health issues. He...

Summary Pamela Magee [PM], age 37, told me the story of her life in New Orleans one filled with too much work, deaths to violence and worry for her remaining children’s health. She lost one son five years ago to violence in the streets of New Orleans. The majority of her family didn’t want to leave so they stayed in New Orleans through the storm.Pamela told of how her family had to evacuate and walked from their home in New Orleans East to the University of New Orleans [UNO] Lakefront...

Summary Dianne Menendez [DM] told of her life in Houston since Hurricane Katrina. She’s the caretaker of her mother, and they stayed together through everything. She’s returning to New Orleans because her mother wants to be there. But, DM said that she’s traveled all over the world and could make her home anywhere.She said that they came together to Houston with other family members and were twenty-one members in one home-her nephew’s home. As government assistance started to come in the...

Summary Mr. and Mrs. Menendez talked about their community and the experiences that they had living in New Orleans. They talked about the house they had to evacuate that was only two years old. They shared how socially they had a grand time in New Orleans with family and friends, talked about the festivals and balls they attended, and their neighborhood events.Louis and Vivian evacuated from New Orleans to Houston with a large number of people. They went to the home of their son and...

Summary Albert Nicholas [AN] talked about his life and work in New Orleans and the circumstances surrounding Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Hurricane Katrina brought him and family and friends to Houston. After evacuating from Houston for Hurricane Rita, he returned to Houston where he remains. Since the beginning of all this, he stated, he’s been working on getting back home to New Orleans. He wants to be there for the rest of his days if he can. Back in New Orleans, he’ll be working on his Seventh...

Summary This interview with Glenda Register [GR] covers her story about living in New Orleans in an old area of town, the Lower Ninth Ward. She was a family oriented person and kept mostly to herself in her neighborhood community. Her time was spent working and in church and related activities. Other than that, she was with family or at home. She and her family shared family events together. Most recently they’d begun to have meals together monthly generally around birthdates. This was something...

Summary Kemic Smothers and his family are survivors relocated to Houston, TX when Hurricane Katrina was approaching New Orleans. Kemic talked about the city and the devastation. And he addressed throughout the interview, the failings of the government and the disappointment and frustration that he felt.His personal frustration and empathy for his fellow evacuees is tempered with satire that is cutting and honest and at times funny. Kemic and his wife are making the best of an awful...

Summary

Mackie Smothers is a survivor from Hurricane Katrina. He lives here in Houston with his wife in the home of his wife’s sister. Most of his immediate family is here in their respective apartments. Mr. Smothers is very much concerned about what to do with his home in New Orleans and he is frustrated with the way the government and insurance companies have handled him. He misses his food and the closeness of his friends and their fishing holes. But, he is determined to make a home here.

Summary Nicole Broussard Smothers talked about her life New Orleans. She was pleased with her work environment and the community she and her husband shared in the legal arena, as they are both attorneys. She talked about the comfortable routines they had for their son and the plans they made for their next child.Nicole was not at all prepared for her life being turned upside down and now they struggle to get by with no assistance from FEMA and help from her mother. She and her husband...

Summary Mrs. Sylvia Sykes [MS] lived in a nice neighborhood in New Orleans with her husband and their three children. All were grown and out of the house when the storm hit. They had a nice life, and Mr. and Mrs. Sykes gave their children plenty of exposure to good experiences. They were very active in the city’s social events, the balls and Mardi Gras and other cultural events.MS was not in New Orleans when the hurricane hit, but in other parts of the state. She was sixty miles from...