Perspective – A First Hand Account of One Family’s Struggle

by Michelle Gustavson & Amanda Ulrich

There are very few times in life when you stop and realize that an experience will change you forever, but one day in New Orleans over Spring Break qualified as one of those exceptions.

We finally arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, at midnight on Sunday, after an exhausting 12 hours of traveling. With all good intentions, we planned on calling it a night, but the city’s vibrant culture gave us our second wind. Through the lights, music, and charm of the French Quarter, we were able to experience the finer side of New Orleans, in all of its glory. Yet, less than ten hours later, we found ourselves standing in a pile of rubble and debris—all that remained of a family’s home.

While attending a block party coordinated by ACORN, we met a family whose two homes were decimated by Hurricane Katrina; almost a year and one-half later, their lives are still not back to normal. During Hurricane Katrina, the mother and her adult daughter sought shelter at Lakeland Hospital, where the daughter was employed. The father, however, being unable to part with his home, refused to evacuate, despite the fact that he was bound to a wheelchair. He remained behind with his son during the hurricane and, consequently, the two were forced to live in their attic to escape the peril of the rising water. Ultimately, it was their neighbor who arrived by boat to save them.

The family was separated for weeks, not knowing of each others’ fates, with the mother and daughter being temporarily housed in Houston, and the father and son in South Carolina. After weeks of searching, the family found each other through a posting on the Internet. A week later, they were reunited; however, their joy was short lived. Upon returning to New Orleans, they discovered that the daughter’s home was completely destroyed, and all that remained of the parents’ home was a shell of what had previously been, due to both damage from the hurricane, flooding from the levees, and looting.

We were surprised to find that despite all that they have been through, the entire family remains optimistic. After waiting moths after Hurricane Katrina, the family is back on the property, residing in two FEMA trailers (which are barely adequate for their living needs). The family has been gutting the mother and father’s home, which remains standing on the property. However, since the daughter’s house was not salvageable, it was bulldozed by the City of New Orleans. Although the City promised to remove the remnants of the house from the property, they never followed through. As a result, the family was once again forgotten by the City of New Orleans.

We helped the family remove the pile from the property. Buried beneath the mud and sea shells washed in by the storm surge, we found reminders of the life lived in that home before the hurricane—umbrellas, bed posts, couch cushions, bowls, door knobs, and broken windows, etc. were all that remained. However, we were able to salvage some irreplaceable family keepsakes uncovered in the process, including a family photo and a special gift given to the father in 2002 by a now deceased friend.

The family was very appreciative of our efforts, and took a picture of the group to memorialize the day. After all receiving hugs from the mother, we parted ways. We only spent a few hours with the family, but their story has touched our lives forever. Despite the fact that they lost so much, they are just grateful for the fact that they still have each other. Today, we all experienced a much-needed dose of reality of what is truly important in life—it is not how much money you make, nor the status you attain, it is the people who you surround yourself with and the relationships you form. As the family has show us, even after losing everything, these relationships can sustain you through the hard times.

While law school is described as one of the most rigorous and challenging experiences one can undertake, it is nothing compared to what the victims of Hurricane Katrina have endured. It’s a reminder to all of us to not lose sight of what matters most—the friends and family that are all too often neglected by law students.