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Interviews by By Kathleen S. Carr ’96
On August 26, Hurricane Katrina devastated the
city of New Orleans. HCM asked three local alumni to describe
the impact of the storm on their lives and the region.
Here are their stories, in their own words.
God’s Plan
H. Bruce Shreves ’65, Attorney
“I live in Lakeview, in the lakefront region. I stayed with my brother, while our wives took
the kids and fled to Baton Rouge. When the levee broke, there
was water everywhere, and we were trapped. We were shocked
when we heard about the levees on 17th Ave. breaking. That
was about a mile and a half from where we lived. Then there
was water everywhere. The biggest damage came from the flooding
after the hurricane. Water wiped out areas that hadn’t
been damaged by the hurricane. You can’t prevent a
hurricane, but you could’ve built those levees better.
We lost power, water and sewers. We stayed there for six
days until we realized we weren’t going to get out.
It was clear that the water wasn’t going to subside
for weeks. So we walked to a clearing, waved our shirts in
the air, and an Army helicopter picked us up and brought
us to New Orleans International Airport. One of my neighbors’ sons
picked us up there and drove us to Baton Rouge. I found my
family, and we stayed in Baton Rouge with friends. My law
firm relocated to Lafayette, where we’re living right
now. A lawyer down here gave us her house. You can’t
find rentals anywhere in this state. I had to buy another
car. Partners of mine had to buy houses here. We are going
to try to get back to New Orleans in the next couple of weeks.
I have partners whose homes were destroyed. Those who relocate
have to put children in new schools. There are so many problems
that no one ever anticipated. To lose an entire city for
several months is unheard of in this country. We thought
we had everything in our life under control, and we soon
realized there was nothing in our control.
If you want to give God a good laugh, tell him your plans
for the next five years.”
Loss
Cathleen M. Ryan ’84, Architect
“I didn’t know there was a hurricane coming.
A friend called me at 9 a.m. on Saturday and asked if I was
going to evacuate. I said, ‘Why?’ By 9:45, I
had a plane ticket out of New Orleans. I’m staying
with my boyfriend in D.C.; I’m lucky, I had somewhere
to go. As evacuees, we talked on the phone all day long and
were glued to the Internet. I had to stop watching TV. People
kept asking me if I lost my house, and they seemed kind of
disappointed when I said ‘no.’ I had a flight
to go home the weekend Rita hit, and I couldn’t get
back. So I changed my plans. My mom and two siblings live
in New Orleans. My mom’s house and my brother’s
house didn’t fare well, but mine did. Everyone else’s
loss puts yours in perspective. So many people have lost
everything. My mom happened to be in Delaware taking care
of her mother when the storm hit. We thought her house was
fine, but three weeks later, we realized the roof had come
off and the ceilings had fallen. Typically, whenever my mother
leaves for a hurricane, she takes all the photos down and
puts them on the beds. But this time, she didn’t do
that; as a result, all our family photos have been spared.
But the loss keeps coming in waves. All the flooding. All
the people who didn’t get any help. The sadness of
those desperate people. The newest wave of despair are all
the layoffs and cuts.
But I’m going back.”
New Orleanian, Born and Raised
Claude J. Kelly III ’83, Criminal Lawyer, Consultant
“I love New Orleans. Recently, at times, I’ve
had thoughts of moving altogether, but now I feel even more
committed to bringing it back. It needs people to come back.
It’s a great city. My father always said there are
only three cities in the United States worth living in: San
Francisco, Boston and New Orleans.
I’m a typical New Orleanian; I was born and raised
here. I’ve never evacuated for a hurricane in my life,
but the hysteria was growing around Katrina, so I took my
wife, two daughters and my mom and drove to Houston around
4 a.m. that Sunday. I took an alternate route, and we left
early. The mayor has been faulted a lot, but he didn’t
sugarcoat anything. From Saturday afternoon on, he kept saying, ‘If
you stay, you will die.’ He made it abundantly clear.
Monday morning we thought we’d dodged a bullet. Then
the levees broke, and everything changed. To say the levee
breaking was never imagined is ridiculous. This was the most
anticipated natural disaster in the history of the United
States. What protects you from hurricanes is distance. We
used to have distance with the wetlands, but they’ve
eroded. This has been widely known; people weren’t
shocked by this. There was plenty of warning.
We’re stuck in Houston. We’ve lived in four places
in the last five weeks. Life has been fairly hectic but my
kids are in school in Houston and playing soccer. Things
are starting to feel settled. But we’re going back.
Our house is salvageable. My mother lost everything. It’s
amazing to see a water line above your head. Until you go
there, and see block after block of destruction, you can’t
imagine it. There’s a nice area called Lakeview. It
looks like nuclear winter now. There’s no color; everything
is in shades of gray. The places that survived were the oldest
regions originally settled on the highest ground. It’s
the low areas that man took over that Mother Nature has taken
back. I hope the sections that come back retain some character.
A lot of resettlement efforts will depend on whether or
not people get compensated for their losses. That will determine
who and what come back. The big fear is that businesses that
have moved won’t return, and that New Orleans will
just become a gas port and an isolated tourism spot.”
Kathleen S. Carr ’96 is a freelance writer based in Melrose, Mass. She can be reached via e-mail at kath.carr@gmail.com.
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