<< Teens raised thousands of dollars for Hurricane Katrina survivors

By Katie Havard, 15, New Roads School
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When Hurricane Katrina struck, my heart especially went out to the families in Mobile, Alabama, and Lucedale, Mississippi. That’s where much of my family is from, and my dad’s family is spread out around that area. His parents grew up in Lucedale and they each had 10 brothers and sisters. Those 10 brothers and sisters all got married and had kids, who in turn had kids, and even some of them have kids, too. (That should give you an idea of how big my family is.) We don’t get to see them much but they have the habit of showing up at major holidays.

When the disaster hit, my dad was frantic. The phone lines were down in the areas hit by Katrina and there was no hope of e-mail or anything. So we didn’t know what had happened to our family. I felt very helpless and useless. I wanted to do more than just donate money to the Red Cross. I wanted to actually, physically help people. However, all I could do was wait until we heard something.

My dad, who is a pilot for Delta Airlines, talked about getting in his plane and flying down there to help the refugees and look for his family—this was before we found out no one was allowed into those areas. He wanted to fly shifts for the Delta pilots whose homes or families were directly affected so that they wouldn’t lose any pay. (Delta had so many pilots offer to do this that they didn’t need him to help. Delta was the first major airline to go back to New Orleans.)

After about a week of nail-biting, heart-wrenching uncertainty (sitting with my eyes glued to the news) we finally got an e-mail from my Aunt Nell telling us that everyone was more or less OK. My cousin Jerry had suffered an injury during Hurricane Ivan last year, and was in the hospital around the time Katrina struck. He had to evacuate and then, because he couldn’t get treatment on time, had to have his foot amputated. Sadly, my cousins Tara and Kathy lost their home in New Orleans. They are staying with Aunt Nell in Tallahassee, Florida. We were so relieved that this one e-mail was able to get through somehow. I’m just glad they’re all OK.