A new start cut short by the hurricane

Posted Tuesday, September 6 2005 01:25:57 am

By Riki Parikh
Managing Editor

Sophomore Rafi Mando started his first year at the University of New Orleans on August 22, prepared to succeed this semester after transferring from GW last spring.

 “I was starting to get used my schedule,” said Mando, “and then the hurricane came.”

Mando was one of several thousands of students who are displaced now that Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. His school is underwater, his home is uninhabitable and his family has been forced to relocate like thousands of others in the area.

“No one took it seriously,” said Mando of Katrina, which became a threat nearly ten days ago, “because in New Orleans, every time there’s a hurricane, everybody makes a big deal about it anyway.”

At 5 a.m. on the morning of Aug. 29, the hurricane reached its strongest point. Mando and his family were forced to evacuate.

They left and moved to the Kenner Regional Medical Center, where his father worked as a physician. They spent the night there after evacuating their home in Kenner, Louisiana, about ten minutes outside New Orleans.

“We just thought it was going to be a two-day thing like it always is: the hurricane would come, wipe a lot of [stuff] out, and then you’d go back and… resume your normal life,” said Mando.

“But it wasn’t like that.”

He realized it was a major hurricane “when the [hospital] was swaying eight feet in each direction and my mom was getting motion sickness,” he said.

He and his family were stuck in the hospital until Wednesday night, surrounded by approximately 500 patients with no electricity, food, or water. Struck with boredom, Mando did little except eat a few munchies that his mother packed before they left the house.

The hospital did have a generator, but the only thing that it powered were the lights. There was no running water, no working toilets and no power to operate the equipment.

The minimal amount of water that was stored in the hospital was rationed and quickly ran out.

One woman died after several days without dialysis.

The hospital sustained considerable damage, with windows being blown out and the structure becoming loose. Mando said that rioters were trying to get into the hospital, seeking refuge from the mayhem outside.

“Everybody had to wear bracelets… so [hospital officials] could identify who they were and if they were supposed to be there or not,” he said.

“We were trapped.”

Getting away

On Aug. 31, as classes began at GW, the water around Kenner began to subside. The Mandos left the hospital and went to check their house to see how much damage was done.

On his way home, Mando passed by the mall next to his subdivision, this time ransacked by looters whom he saw stealing televisions and Nike shoes. “When a disaster like that happens, no one really thinks about anyone else, they just think about themselves,” he said.

Luckily, when he got home, the structure still remained and the looters had not yet reached his gated community. For the most part, his development, which was built on an elevated surface, survived with only cosmetic wind damage, with trees uprooted and shingles torn apart.

“There was no power, no water, no electricity, no A/C,” said Mando. “It was impossible to live down there.”

The flood water never reached the house.

They stayed the night, expecting the power to return the next morning. They fired up their gas grill and cooked the remaining meat that was left in the house.

After realizing that their home was no longer suitable for living, they decided to abandon their compound the next morning and set out toward Mando’s uncle’s home in Alexandria, Virgnina.

The Mando family drove through Alabama, stopping in a Birmingham hotel on Thursday night before continuing across the country, DC-bound.

The trip was smooth, except for when Mando’s car gas tank almost reached empty. Finding gas was an adventure in itself.

“We had to go to this gas station where there was a four-hour wait,” he said. “And there was only a $20 limit on gas… It was a mess.”

Gas prices were astronomical, but the lines got shorter the further north they drove. Eventually, they arrived in the metro area on Saturday where they plan on staying until the city gets rebuilt.

A failed plan

Mando, like many Americans, is disappointed by the government’s response.

“I think a country that’s this wealthy [and] this powerful… could get a handle on a catastrophe in its own territory,” he said.

New Orleans and the surrounding areas had been planning for several years the type of response that was necessary, said Mando.

“The plan always involved the federal government stepping in and providing food and water [and] troops and keeping order, but that wasn’t there,” he said. “The master plan fell through completely.”

Everyone from the local police to the American Red Cross failed in their relief efforts, he said.

“The Red Cross was supposed to come to the hospital to deliver water and they never did,” he said.

The hospital has been shut down for the next two months due to lack of water. Patients were transferred nearby hospitals that were still running.

Despite his frustration with the federal response, he appreciated the sympathy from his peers when he arrived back in the district.

“I actually expected them to care less,” he said.

But he did admit that it was strange to walk the serene streets of Washington yesterday while flood water still engulfed his town.

“It’s just not same place here,” he said. “It just hasn’t affected you personally.”

An expensive future

For now, Mando will remain in DC, hopefully attending classes at GW and staying with friends. His mother, who was a substitute teacher in Louisiana, will try to get a similar job in Alexandria public schools, while his sister, a freshman, and his brother, a junior, will enroll in high school in Alexandria.

“I never thought in a million years I’d come back here this quickly,” he said

Mando’s father will head back toward the disaster area to offer his medical services in a makeshift hospital in Louisiana. “That’s going to provide him with food and water and a place to live… and he’s just going to work… to get things up again.”

Mando would like to take 12 credits, approximately four classes, while he stays here during the course of the semester. He plans on meeting university officials today to see if there is room for him to sign-up.

“I don’t know if I can afford the thousand dollars per credit, but I’m going to see what I can do,” he said.

The price, he said, is the one thing that makes him regret returning to GW.

“It’s not possible for me,” he said of the charge for non-degree students. “My dad lost his job [and] there’s no income. It’s just not possible.”

Mando has not yet spoken with his school officials to see if the credits will transfer. In fact, there is no indication on when his school will reopen again.

The UNO website says that about two-thirds of the campus is underwater, and Mando estimates that it will be January before UNO resumes.

However, he is determined to find something to sustain him while his city rebuilds.

“I’m going to have to figure out something else,” he said. “I can’t just [be] not doing anything for a semester.”