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Hurricane Katrina

Family's odyssey ends with Louisiana return

They left the state before Katrina hit. They had to drive to Florida for shelter. Then they opted to return to Louisiana.

By DEMORRIS LEE
Published September 11, 2005

NEW TAMPA - Abdelrazak Hamed and his family heeded the warning. They watched as Hurricane Katrina headed for their community just outside New Orleans. So Hamed loaded the car with his wife and three kids and headed to Florida.

"It usually takes us 11 hours to get to Florida, but it took us about 36 this time," Hamed said as he sat on the terrace of the Holiday Inn Express in New Tampa. "We were going to get a hotel somewhere else, but this was the first we could find with rooms available."

Hamed said every hotel along the way was booked.

"By the time we got here the storm had hit, because the traffic was bumper to bumper," said Hamed, whose house sustained damage. One of the two convenience stores he owns is still underwater, while the other has been totally looted.

"We are brokenhearted and it hurts," Hamed continued. "You see your personal stuff. Your house, your business, your life, gone. Then you stop and think and you thank God because you left and you are alive."

Two hotels in New Tampa, the Holiday Inn Express and the Wingate Inn, are participating in a relief program that allows residents affected by Katrina to live at their establishments for up to 14 days at no charge. If the resident lives in a designated ZIP code, he or she merely needs to show an ID or an electric bill and the price of the room will be paid by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"What better place to be, while you are getting all your changes sorted out," said George Sandorna, Holiday Inn Express assistant manager. "We are trying to do our part. All you need to do is show up, check in and we will do the rest."

Both establishments are ready to take in as many families as possible.

Hamed, his wife, 14-year-old daughter, and 11- and 9-year-old sons spent two nights in New Tampa. They then traveled to Sanford to stay with his wife's parents.

"We enrolled our kids in school there, but our youngest son went two days and refuses to go back," Hamed said. "Right now, getting our kids in school is most important."

Friday, Hamed and family drove back to Baton Rouge, La., where he has rented a two-bedroom apartment. A far cry from his four-bedroom house that's now sweating water and growing black mold. The family's new space is small but the children will be in school.

"A lot of people from our neighborhood have relocated to the same area and have their children in the same school," Hamed said. "Things will not seem so new for the children while we try to work and figure everything out."

[Last modified September 10, 2005, 09:32:05]