Children's Stories from Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita
Maureen Barber BA and Judi-Speir Crawford, MA, MSW, CSW

Judi Speir-Crawford flew down from Ann Arbor, MI, to work with Maureen Barber meet the emotional needs of the evacuees in this area. Monroe, where Maureen lives, had upwards of 4000 evacuees housed there. We have been very busy using our training, the Brave Bart books donated from TLC and our Brave Bart and Helping Hannah puppets that were so kindly donated and made by Judi’s church.

We concentrated our work with the children but also worked with adult survivors and training adult volunteer teachers and helpers. Because the population of New Orleans is 90-95% Catholic, we found a large number of children in the Catholic schools in Monroe. Since Maureen was a retired school teacher in one of these schools, we had easy access to them. The three small Catholic schools in Monroe had taken in over 300 evacuee children so we had our hands full. We trained the teachers how to do the debriefing and then did debriefings with them. But we also worked with many of the most traumatized children individually. We presented at a large Church of Christ Church one evening, at their invitation, and taught teachers and a principal of their school along with teachers of a local private school and church volunteers. We did a staff debriefing for two of the schools. We would like to share some of the stories from these experiences.

The Teachers

At first the teachers, although concerned about the evacuee students, were equally interested about their classes in general and their curriculum. They wanted to cut the evacuee students some slack, but were worried that the other students would notice and complain. A chemistry teacher expressed concern that the evacuees were not turning in their homework on time. She felt that she had to insist that they follow the rules on this. These students were not doing well in class.

The teachers were also worried about their lesson plans. Each of these schools held approximately 250 children and then took in over 100 students each within one weeks time. To compound this problem not all of these students came in at the same time and some of them came in and then left to go to other areas. The schools were trying to help the students on many different levels; academically, emotionally, socially, and in some cases financially. They helped with food, clothing and housing for some of the families. The stress level for the administration and the teachers was very high.

As we did a mock debriefing with the teachers, instead of assigning a role to each of them, we asked them to take on a role of one of their students. After just a few debriefing questions the teachers began to get choked up and teary eyed. One teacher even cried. They were beginning to “get it”. The chemistry teacher wondered how they did homework at all. At the end, the teachers were much more aware of the problems and the “mode” that the children were in.

High School Students

During the actual debriefing with the high school students the teachers that we trained were awestruck at the students sharing. They told us afterwards that while they felt the students had been through a hard time-they had no idea of what they had really experienced and how much it had affected them.

Teenagers’ Stories

1. AnnaBeth, a Sophmore evacuee from Hurricane Katrina living in New Orleans.

AnnaBeth was a very tough looking girl dressed in “Goth” style. She became teary eyed at the beginning of the discussion and stayed that way throughout the meeting. She said that she considered herself a very strong person, always in control. When she was told that they would have to evacuate she said that she cried for hours. As they drove north they had to stop the car as she had a panic attack and had trouble breathing. She shared that she has been crying at home for a month. She poignantly said that before the hurricane she often told her mother that she hated her. Now she wished that she was back home doing that, but now she knows that she can never do that again. She can never say “I hate you” to her mother again.

2. Zeke, a freshman evacuee from Hurricane Katrina living in New Orleans.

Zeke was a very pleasant happy-go-lucky type of young fellow. He expressed his love of New Orleans and missing some of his special places that he enjoyed-- he really missed the food. But as the sharing went on he became very serious and expressed the feeling of not wanting to go back. He felt more comfortable in this small school. He was very accepted at the new school. He was begging his parents to not go back-or if they did, to leave him in Monroe with relatives. In the end Zeke’s parents did go back to New Orleans and took a very reluctant and unhappy Zeke with them.

3. Elizabeth, a sophomore from Hurricane Katrina living in New Orleans.

Elizabeth was a very calm, somewhat serious young lady. She shared the story of how her mother had swam from rooftop to rooftop to reach her grandparents house. When she got there she had to break through a skylight in the roof to get in. There they found both of the grandparents dead and they were not able to get their bodies out. AnnaBeth said that these were her favorite grandparents and told the whole story as if it was a movie she had seen on TV with no emotion at all.

Children’s Stories

1. Roland was a third grader, evacuee from Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita and living in New Orleans.

When asked what scared him the most, Roland first told about his brother who was living on the west bank. During the Hurricane his brother went upstairs in his house. He took with him his money and his shotgun. He shot through the roof of the house until he could crawl through the hole and get onto the roof where he was for three days. Some of that time he was unconscious. He was rescued and taken to the Convention Center, which he said was very bad and people were being killed inside. He was finally taken by bus to Austin, TX, where he was finally able to call his mother and the family finally knew that he was alive. They were frantic not knowing anything for seven days.

Roland also spoke of how he and his mother where on their roof for one day and were finally rescued by boat. He had to go by a rope to a small boat that took him to a bigger boat. They were then taken to Houston. Then when Hurricane Rita came they evacuated again to Monroe. Roland had very big eyes and talked in pressured speech. He was agitated and expressed his frustration at all that he had been through. But in the end he said nothing scared him as much as the time he had spent in jail for ten days for stealing a car. The child reported that a friend invited him to jump in a car and take a ride. He said that he did not know it was a stolen car.

2. Justin was a third grader from Biloxi, MS, who was evacuated from Hurricane Katrina and then from Hurricane Rita.

Justin was very quiet but his voice intensified as he told his story. They tried to evacuate, but they couldn’t get out because of the strength of the storm. When the eye of the hurricane came, they quickly got in their car and started driving, but they found every way out blocked by fallen trees. People tried to help, but they couldn’t get all the trees out of the way. He reported that the trees were as tall as a bridge. He got out to help and the rain was stinging him. When he got back in the car the windshield burst in his face.

The family ended up spending the night in parking lot of a restaurant with a lot of other cars. Because there was a police car there watching over them he felt safe enough to fall asleep. When he woke up his mother told him that his uncle had died. Weeks later he found out that his uncle had not died. His uncle was in prison in Angola and although it was flooded, his uncle survived. The intrusive thoughts he had were of being trapped and of his uncle. He couldn’t stop thinking and dreaming about his uncle.

Justin doesn’t know when he will be able to go back home and asked us to help him. He asked for our number and took it home to his grandmother. She called and asked us to talk to Justin some more. His teacher also asked us to help him and said that she would also work with him.

3. Carolyn was a second grader from Chalmette, a suburb of New Orleans. She is an evacuee from Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.

Carolyn went to Texas when her family first evacuated from Katrina. But when Rita came they had to evacuate again. She told us that she was very scared. She said that her home and cars were gone. She thought it would take more money than a credit card would have to replace it all. She was most scared that there would be oil in her house and they won’t be able to go back for 10 years. When I asked her where she heard that she said from her parents and other adults talking. (I had heard the same thing expressed about Chalmette-that they had such a bad oil spill that it would be 10 years before they could go back). Carolyn has nightmares where she is alone in her house and water is coming in and it just keeps rising. There are alligators and sharks in the water and they are trying to get her. She said she dreams this a lot.

4. Jake, a second grader from Lake Charles, LA, an evacuee from Hurricane Rita.

Jake went first to New York when he evacuated and stayed with family there. He patiently explained to all of us that New York is an island, too, surrounded by water. He seemed very impressed and perhaps concerned about that. Now they had come to Monroe to stay.

I read Brave Bart to his entire class one day and when I read the part about talking to someone you trust-he blurted out that there was no one that he trusted. During the group diffusion he was extremely agitated. He couldn’t sit still for a moment. His whole body was constantly in motion. But he did seem to hear the questions and listen to the children’s answers. When it was his turn he always said – nothing scared him; nothing worried him, etc. The only information he gave out during the entire time was that his pool and hot tub were full of mud. When we went to talk to him after the session, his parents had come and picked him up and they had gone home to Lake Charles. We felt frustrated, but hoped that going home would be good therapy for him.

5. Komicra, a 5th grader from New Orleans an evacuee from Katrina and Rita.

Komicra said that he was not scared of anything. He had just gotten back from looking at his house in New Orleans and reported that it was bad. He didn’t think they will be able to go back to it. He is worried about his dog and he had to leave his dog out at the horse stables and the last time when they went out to see him the dog was gone.

Komicra’s biggest worry and concern was about his mother. He said that his mother was trying to find them a house to live in but wasn’t having any luck. He interrupted to ask if we were able to help his mother find a house, preferably a house with a yard for when his dog comes back? I told him that I would bring him the newspaper and magazine of homes tomorrow. Then all the kids asked for them and I assured them that I would bring one for each of them.

6. Jason, a 5th grader from New Orleans an evacuee from Hurricane Katrina.

Jason said that he cried for hours just before he left New Orleans. He begged his father to leave with them, but his father told him that he had to stay. It was his job to study the Hurricane. He told Jason that a Captain always goes down with his ship. As they left all he could think about was his father. Because of phone lines being down and cell phones not working it was 3 weeks before they heard from his father. He prayed to God and thanked Him that his father was safe. He cried when he talked to him. His father promised him that he would never stay behind again. He also is very worried about his Mom and Dad. He also asked me to bring him information to find a house. Jason did not think that they could stay where they were and then they would be looking for a house too. He does have his dog with him.

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