Miss Sarah

Last week Chloe, Chris, Eileen, Drew, and I worked on a house around mid-city. It was a productive week and it was wonderful to meet the homeowner, Sarah, and learn about her experience during the floods after Katrina...

She and her husband had remained in New Orleans at their home. As you know, after Katrina hit, the levees broke the following day and the flooding began, quickly rising. Miss Sarah and her husband made it to the roof of their house where they waited three days for rescue. While they had boats moving through the flood to rescue others, disability prevented her and her husband from easily being able to make it out, and a helicopter ended up picking them up. Like many other people, they were brought to the Super Dome, which became the shelter for people when there was nowhere else safe to go. Even the Super Dome wasn't safe enough, but it was the safest place for the time.

Because of the chaos of getting people there, she lost her husband in the crowd for a good amount of time, something she was worried about happening in the process of getting there. She explained to us how scary it was for her not knowing where it was for such a long period of time, and how relieving it was to finally find him and know that he was alright. I can only imagine what that feels like, having the one person you need the most during a crisis missing. That seems to all most people had... each other.

In the end, it's what got them through. Miss Sarah described that as the worst experience of her life, and she "could never wish that upon anyone."

Her husband passed away a couple of years later. Since then, Miss Sarah as remained at her home on her own, which we are in the process of rebuilding and finishing up. Four years later, her house is finally looking back to normal, as are the other houses in her neighborhood. The disaster affected Miss Sarah and everyone forever, but she'll be darned if it takes away her home and community. She and everyone are much too strong for that, and you can't take that away from anyone... each other.