Acorn

Media Credit: Meghan Van Dyk Freshman Sayed Saber stayed at his New Orleans house during break. He returned to Drew with a large suit case to fill with dorm room with memories from home. [Click to enlarge]

Freshman Sayed Saber eagerly looked outside the airplane window when the pilot announced New Orleans was below them. He expected to see the shining lights of the city, but instead saw the lights of the control towers glistening off Lake Pontchartrain.

�I know what Lake Pontatrain looks like from the air � and the airport is nowhere near the lake � they are miles apart,� Saber said.

Saber was also shocked to see how empty Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport was as he walked to baggage claim. The souvenir shops, fast food restaurants and even Starbucks were all closed. �It was eerie,� he said. But that was just the beginning.

Throughout his first semester at Drew University, Saber felt distracted � he yearned to be part of the rebuilding process in New Orleans but still wanted to experience life as a college freshman. �I got homesick a lot, not because I missed New Orleans, it was more that I wanted to be there to help my mom get back the house and help anyone who needed help,� Saber said.

It wasn�t until Saber�s mother visited home one week after Katrina hit that he heard any direct news of his home or neighborhood. �She said New Orleans felt like a war zone because there were humvees everywhere and lots of military people patrolling the levees to protect the town from looters,� Saber said. �She also said that there wasn�t much damage to our house, other than that the left side of the roof caved in.�

Winter break was Saber�s first time home since he left to visit relatives in Shreveport, La. the weekend before Katrina hit land. He felt relieved to be in New Orleans to see the devastation first hand, say goodbye to his favorite hang-outs, reminisce with his friends and most importantly, to be a part of the rejuvenation of the city he loves.

Saber�s mother picked him up at the airport, and his eyes remained glued to the window as they drove to their home in Algiers, New Orleans. �The ride home wasn�t too bad, but you could tell. A lot of stores were closed and you could see the damage along the road,� Saber said.

�When we pulled in front of the house, it looked tattered. It had a blue roof � pieces of plywood covered with a [Federal Emergency Management Agency] tarp and stapled with a 2x4 � so the rain couldn�t get in. You could see where the wind blew off paint chips from the house. A telephone pole fell on the six-foot wooden fence in our backyard. And our guest bedroom was covered in mold,� he explained.

Other than those damages, Saber�s house and even his car were virtually untouched by the category five winds of Katrina. �It wasn�t as bad as it could have been, and it wasn�t flooded like District nine,� Saber said.

Saber spent a lot of his break traveling around New Orleans, taking pictures of the devastation. �On the street to my high school, it was the worst. Right when I turned down it, I knew right away that no one lived in these houses,� he said.

�You could see abandoned animals on lawns and men wearing white suits and face masks that looked like they were doing experiments. There were cars in the medians of the streets, and you know no one parked them there. You could see water lines. You could see toilets, sinks, and refrigerators on lawns and wood beams, no sheet rock, on the inside of houses. There were a lot of boats � boats on cars, boats in the houses.�

Saber went to Benjamin Franklin High School, the school he attended just one year ago, to visit with teachers and to help clear debris. �Everyone has a story to tell � and no one story is the same,� he said. Some stories involved parents and children separated or friends uprooted twice by Hurricane Rita. �The condition of the school was bad. During my junior year, they put down a brand new wood floor in the gym � and now the planks are warped and pointed towards the ceiling,� Saber said.

�I helped to completely gut-out the first floor � took wood out and sheet rock. We also had to move machines and weights out of the weight room. There was a lot of work to be done, and I helped out only a little bit.�But after the shock set in, Saber began to feel a sense of normalcy about Katrina, he said. Many of Saber�s friends gathered for a New Year�s Eve party at a friend�s house.

�The roof was off the house, the basement had flooded and tiles were warped, but in this dilapidated house, they still had a party,� Saber said. �We didn�t really talk about Katrina, and neither did the adults. It was like, �It�s over, let�s try to do our own thing,� and it just kind of rubbed off on me.�

Throughout the break, Saber noticed a bloom in New Orleans. �The French Quarter was on its feet, and the central business district was on its feet,� Saber said. �Stores were open, but many of them closed early. Signs hung everywhere offering $10 an hour and a weekly $250 bonus to employees. People just wanted entertainment � they go out to restaurants, see movies and go down to Bourbon Street.�

Saber is most looking forward to sitting in traffic when he returns this summer.

�I can�t wait to see tail lights in front of me and for the New Orleans to be back to normal, and I think it will be,� he said. �It was joyous to be home. I had fun and made peace � it was a different feeling that just coming home from college.�

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