One year later: Hurricane survivors pick up lives

Forrest Crawford, Weber State University assistant to the president for diversity, has watched his two older brothers go through the pain of rebuilding their lives after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their homes. "You could sense that sadness," he said of talking to them. "You could sense that feeling of being disconnected." His oldest brother, Kermit, was pretty lucky, Crawford said. Kermit's New Orleans house was damaged, but they were able to move back in. His brother Ken's house was completely destroyed like all the others in his neighborhood. Though he's still in New Orleans for work, Ken is trying to relocate his position to Oklahoma, where he has relatives and the rest of his family now lives. "They decided that it was not worth it for them to go back to New Orleans and rebuild," Crawford said. He added that although his brothers have to face the hardships left behind when Hurricane Katrina blew by last year, they keep their spirits up knowing they are luckier than many. On Aug. 29, 2005, the category-5 hurricane hit the southern American coastline along Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, hitting Louisiana and Mississippi the hardest. Hurricane Katrina killed 1,695 people, displaced more than 700,000 others and caused about $96 billion worth of damage. Some families have had difficulty rebuilding their homes. Several high-profile lawsuits have been fought in court against insurance companies that have given out only partial hurricane damage claims due to the wording of a homeowners' insurance agreement differentiating between wind, water, flood and hurricane damage. Crawford said his brothers haven't had much trouble with their insurance claims, although Ken hasn't seen any money yet. According to a four-page document put out by the White House, $110 billion in federal funds has been secured for recovery efforts and to repair the New Orleans' levees, but some people say that only $44 billion has been spent, and the money is very slowly being used to build new infrastructure. Crawford said his family is divided among those people who say the government managed the natural disaster adequately, and those who say it was fumbled, but he said the aftermath has shown the American people something else: The gaps between the rich and poor; those with opportunities and those without. "I think the Katrina tragedy put a face on poverty," Crawford said. "It's been a long time since we've seen that face." He said his two brothers are undergoing a healing process that the rest of New Orleans is also experiencing. Kermit and Ken are working in relief and rebuilding projects in New Orleans to help their neighbors. That's helped them see the bigger picture in things and that there are worse situations than theirs, Crawford said. The 2006 hurricane season has started later than last year. There have been no hurricanes, and tropical storm Ernesto caused only a few deaths in the Caribbean, but none in the United States. Still, Rosemary Hoffman said she morbidly checks the weather reports for any storms heading toward Mississippi. The wife of WSU associate provost Jim Hutchins evacuated last year with their two dogs from their Jackson, Miss., home. She said the city was far enough inland that most of the damage was caused by wind knocking down trees. One pine fell through her backyard fence. That house has been repaired and sold, and now she lives in Utah with her husband. "I am so happy to be here in Utah and not have to worry about that," Hoffman said. "We're living on a fault line, but it's still - I enjoyed moving here so much."