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Still picking up pieces

A year after Hurricane Katrina hit, an evacuee now living near Pinellas Point recalls how much he feared for his life.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published August 30, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Knowing he was about to lose most of his property to the floods and winds of Hurricane Katrina, Obiora "Obi" Nwokedi saved the irreplaceable.

He gathered family photographs, starting with a 17-by-24-inch framed picture with his wife, Marie, at their wedding, others of their honeymoon in Hawaii. He also saved pictures of their daughters, family documents and videotapes and important paperwork. For three days and two nights, he survived on canned food - limiting himself to one can a day - praying that someone would rescue him from his New Orleans roof top.

A year later, Nwokedi, 41, lives with his family in a modestly furnished apartment near Pinellas Point. The air conditioning in the apartment didn't work Monday, but Nwokedi focused on the positive.

He is thankful for the strangers in St. Petersburg who have helped his family since Katrina, Nwokedi said. He spoke of Sister Maretta of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Richard and Nancy Lehner, who lent them a furnished home, and the generosity of Cornerstone Community Church.

Nwokedi is one of an estimated 8,000 Katrina evacuees still in the Tampa Bay area, said Tamera Fontenot of Catholic Charities, which has a program to help evacuees. Nwokedi said he does not plan to return to New Orleans, where he ran a cleaning business.

"I want to re-establish my business here. I'm not in any hurry to move my kids again," he said. "I'm not going to go back to New Orleans, because the levees are not safe. It's like putting your family in danger."

He is among the 40 or so people being helped by a Catholic Charities' program called Katrina Aid Today, said Fontenot, who supervises the effort. "They run the gamut from single moms with lots of children to seniors who are here by themselves," she said.

The program helps evacuees with FEMA and assists them in deciding whether to settle in the Tampa Bay area or return to their homes.

"I think the most substantial thing we do is help them devise those recovery plans, to decide what their needs still are and help them achieve those so they can get back on their feet," Fontenot said. "A lot of times people aren't even sure what their needs are or what resources are available."

Nwokedi, who was born in Nigeria and came to the United States from London in 1980, said Catholic Charities "has been extremely wonderful" to his family. "They have helped with the rent here, with food. They helped with FEMA. With FEMA, you have to have a lot of patience."

Nwokedi and his wife, Marie, who is from Haiti and is a nurse at All Children's Hospital, have two daughters, Chison, 7, and Nkechi, 3. He spends his days shuttling the girls back and forth from school and day care and trying to re-establish his business. Sometimes he copes with the unbidden memories of last summer's ordeal.

Sitting at a dining table, Nwokedi talked about getting his family out of New Orleans before Katrina hit. He stayed behind to take care of his business. "We all thought that by the weekend, we would be back," he said. By the time he decided to evacuate, the airport was closed.

He punched out the attic fan to make his way to the roof of his house, he said. Black, smelly water swirled below. "The things that I saw and experienced . . . It was horrible. Lots of dead people in the water. I saw this woman who lost her son to an alligator," he said.

"I had some food up in the attic. I didn't know if and when help was coming, but I just believed that God would see me through," said Nwokedi, now a parishioner at St. Joseph's. He was rescued by a Good Samaritan who was using his boat to help the stranded.

For a week no one in his family, which fled to Houston, knew whether he was alive, Nwokedi said. His mother, who was visiting from Nigeria, was pleased to hear his voice, but said she wouldn't be satisfied until she saw him.

He's trying to salvage his badly damaged house. "It's a very slow rebuilding process," he said.

[Last modified August 30, 2006, 08:01:44]