Katrina Interview\r\n\r\nInterviewee: Linda Clark\r\nInterviewer: Kimberly Mould\r\n\r\nTime of interview: 02/22/06\r\nPlace of interview: Metairie, LA\r\n\r\nBio:\r\n64 year old, single female (lives with boyfriend of 17 years)\r\n3 grown children\r\n5 cats\r\nOwns her mobile home in Lafitte, LA where she has lived for 20 years\r\nEmployed as a seamstress\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Describe to me your previous response to hurricane threats and evacuations in the past?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I leave. I always leave. It is just that simple. \r\n\r\nInterviewer: Why?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: Because of the big one coming and killing me.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: How?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: Flooding, wind, I am just afraid of hurricanes. I know how powerful they are.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: How do you know how powerful they are?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I have seen what they can do and I live in a mobile home.\r\n\r\n Interviewer: What did you feel needed to be done and what decisions did you have to make before you left?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I had to get my animals and my important papers.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: How many animals do you have?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: Five Persian show cats.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Tell me about any storm preparations you did to your house?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I just picked up stuff off the porch and out of the yard. There is not a whole lot of preparations you can do to a mobile home.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: What did you take with you? Tell me what you were thinking when you were packing.\r\n\r\nInterviewee: Two sets of clothes, my cats and cat supplies and Easter decorations I had made for an upcoming cat show that someone had already paid for and I felt obligated to take. I really did not think I would be gone very long and while I knew what devastation could happen, I never really believed it would.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: So no important photographs?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: Oh yeah, I have them in a box. I have a hurricane box that I first packed in 1985 when I evacuated for Hurricane Juan and I have had it ever since, just never unpacked it. I take it every year.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Describe to me when you evacuated who was with you and what were you thinking?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I left the Saturday before the storm and the storm hit on a Monday. I left early to avoid any traffic. It was just me and my cats, everyone else I knew was waiting to see what the storm was going to do. I don’t take any chances. Last year I waited with Buddy (her boyfriend) till the last minute and it was a mess. I vowed never to let that happen again and be so afraid and miserable.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Describe to me where you went.\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I took my cats and went by myself to a friend’s house in Baton Rouge. Buddy arrived on Sunday night. My friend is divorced and lives by herself in a brand new three bedroom house. She also shows cats so she was well equipped to handle mine.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Tell me where were you during the actual time of the storm? Describe what was it like?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I was at my friend’s house and her house is big and strong and we could not even tell there was any storm until the power went out. You couldn’t even hear the wind blowing. The power went out Monday night and there was no TV until Wednesday when we got a generator.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Tell me about what thought was happening to New Orleans?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I was thinking it was hot and my cats are going to die! Ha! No, I didn’t think anything, I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn’t know how bad it was until we got the generator and saw the news and we saw the flooding. I never really thought about my house until I saw the flooding and I said “ooh, I might be in trouble.” But I knew I didn’t flood. I always thought there was a chance I would be okay. \r\n\r\nInterviewer: Describe your mental state after the storm, in good spirits?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: Yeah, I thought it was over and we would get to go home soon. Then I saw the news and they would not let us go back.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Tell me about your thoughts, feelings and reactions to the flooding of New Orleans.\r\n\r\nInterviewee: Holy crap, can I say that on tape? I thought it was awful and I was glued to the TV 24/7. Seeing them take people off their roofs, and stuff….it was just horrible. I kept thinking why didn’t these people evacuate.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Describe what it was like not being home.\r\n\r\nInterviewee: It was hard not knowing the situation, we couldn’t get back in. For what? Two or three weeks we couldn’t get back in, you know the road blocks and we just sat there, I mean my life went on, just didn’t know where it was going. Waiting, trying to call different people to get different information. We tried to get thru to people on their cell phones to see if anybody knew anything, you know whoever we could get on the phone, but no body knew anything- no body was down there (Lafitte) and they wouldn’t let anybody go down there. The waiting and not knowing was tough. Being in someone else’s home for such a long time was tough.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Tell me what it was like when you finally got to go home.\r\n\r\nInterviewee: It was about three weeks and by then I had heard that my home was destroyed by two very large trees that smashed it like a tin can. So I still have never gotten to go home, I live with my mother now.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Describe to me how you felt when you found out that your home was destroyed.\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I was upset, but it was kind of expected. When I realized how bad everything was all around us from the wind damage and flooding. Even though I live on the water, I never thought I would flood and I didn’t, but to see the wind damaged roofs all over the city, I knew my mobile home could never withstand that.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Due to Katrina, what have you lost?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I lost my whole lifestyle. I used to go to cat shows every weekend and I don’t do that anymore because I can afford it. Without a house I don’t feel as if I can have frivolous hobbies. I am living at my mother’s house, what is left of my stuff is packed up, I can’t ever find anything. My relationship is going to crap because we don’t have any alone time and we argue more being in such confined, uncomfortable living conditions.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Describe to me your support systems and coping mechanisms you use.\r\n\r\nInterviewee: My daughter. You are the only bright light in my life lately, everything else is a drag. I have been so depressed I have even gotten on Prozac, but it ain’t doing a darn bit of good.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Tell me about your decisions to rebuild or relocate to stay or go.\r\n\r\nInterviewee: The decisions I am facing now are totally being directed by my insurance company. They will not give me enough time to make a good decision. They are going to force me into doing something I really don’t want to do. I don’t want to get another mobile home and I don’t want to put it in Lafitte, but there is a time limit and I have to make a decision within one year from the date of the storm, or I will lose $15,000. So I am almost being forced to make a wrong decision and I am not happy about it.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Describe to me what your ideal case scenario would be in this situation.\r\n\r\nInterviewee: If I had my preference and my mother wasn’t still alive, I would move out of state, I would take my cats and go. The only reason I would stay is for you. I want to be around when you have children. I am scared to go back to Lafitte, but on the other hand I do not have enough money to you know, really change that situation.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Looking back on the whole big Hurricane Katrina situation, is there anything you would have done differently?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I would have brought more clothes.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Would you have brought your mom, instead of leaving her behind?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: Hey, my deal was that after the last storm, I waited on Buddy, I waited on my mom both of them procrastinated till it was too late to evacuate. I had to stay there. I had to deal with it mentally because I was scared, I didn’t want to be there but it was too late because the traffic was too bad and I couldn’t get out. After that episode, I told everyone involved, I am not waiting on you. I told my sister that it was her turn to take care of mom and I left. I took what was important to me, my two pair of underwear and my cats and I went to Baton Rouge- which really wasn’t far enough because luckily it didn’t hit Baton Rouge, but they have been hit pretty bad and that’s not far enough to evacuate. It really isn’t. If it would have hit there the house I was in would have more than likely gotten roof damage and hopefully not flooded. I don’t know how bad they flood around there. Anything that floods like that is gone, you can’t stop it. The Mississippi River has been known to flood areas in the past.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Describe to me your reactions, thoughts, opinions of our government, post Katrina.\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I really never thought that they would leave a whole city or state in this kind of shape for this long and not do anything about it. I have seen what they can do in other countries in a short length of time and it is not happening here.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: Tell me your thoughts about the future of New Orleans.\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I think it will come back, I just think it will take forever. Forever….I think the population is going to change. Maybe the good that can come from all of this is that there will be less crime.\r\n\r\nInterviewer: How has surviving this catastrophe changed your life- your outlook, values and opinions?\r\n\r\nInterviewee: I hate those kind of questions…are we almost done? (yes) I have learned a lot about bureaucratic bullshit. My new trailer won’t have cat hair all over it! You know, uh…I don’t know, the main thing is I used to have a life before and now I don’t anymore. I don’t have any goals or any ambitions or any anything to look forward to, it is the same depressing situation day in and day out. I know a lot of it has to do with my mom because I am stuck there, but I used to get away sometimes by myself sometimes and I don’t do that anymore and it just…I am just surviving basically and waiting to see what I am going to end up with. Maybe things will be better, but right now it is rough, everybody is tense, everybody is irritable, you know not understanding of each other…it just been rough. You don’t get any answers and the bureaucratic bullshit is choking me and I am living in limbo. The uncertainty will drive you crazy, but you hang in there and keep fighting for a better day. What else can you do?