Few people may doubt that Hurricane Katrina changed New Orleans. At the same time, it also changed Austin.
Dozens of students enrolled in local schools. Shelter was provided for thousands of evacuees, and today, many of them are still calling Austin their home.
Diane Hale now works at Goodwill. Five years ago this weekend, she was trapped on the second floor of her one-bedroom apartment. She was with her mother, brother, son, nephew and sister-in-law.
“It was amazing, it was horrible, it was scary,” Hale said. “It is something I would not wish on anybody."
The family was trapped for three days before the Coast Guard arrived. When they were put on a plane, they had no idea where they were headed.
“I really did not care,” Hale said. “I felt that I was going to be safe.”
Ultimately, they would arrive at the Austin Convention Center and stay there for three weeks. Hale was grateful.
“By the grace of God,” she said, “I was alive and I was with my family.”
They would soon find apartments, and by 2006 Hale says she found a new job. “I am happy to be here,” she said.
Duane Hills is happy to be in Austin too. Shortly after the storm, he drove out of New Orleans with his pregnant wife and their three children.
“It was like we were in a movIe,” Hills said.
They spent weeks on the road before ending in Austin. Today, Hills owns a photography studio and says he is committed to stay.
“I stake my claim as an Austinite,” he said.
Neither Hills nor Hale say they will ever live in New Orleans again. Both of them have gone back to visit, and they say that they sometimes miss the food and the jazz.
