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 that she felt led to organize for some time, especially after September 11th.

Glenda talked about her faith throughout the interview, before and after it as well. She said that she got through Katrina and her aftermath because of her faith, and it is what keeps her going.

She shared about the hurricane that they were trying to leave but the traffic got too bad for them and they couldn’t get out. They diverted to a hurricane on Read Boulevard where they were stranded for days until they were rescued by helicopter. She talked about how the policemen stationed there took charge and saved them basically, by swimming through the nasty and finding them food and water.

About her time in Houston, she talked about how they were blessed to be in the Astrodome shelter only briefly before a white family from League City ‘adopted’ them because he felt led to help the family of a policeman or fireman serving in New Orleans. The kindness they showed her and the trust is something that moved her greatly.

GR told of their evacuation for Rita and then having no shelter when they returned for a while, having lost their reservations. Then they found an extended stay facility and remained there until they each found apartments, she, in Houston and her daughter in League City.

She said that she has made herself content where she is. She misses New Orleans, being that it was the only home she ever knew. She misses the food and the familiarity. She would return but health issues preclude her from doing that.