COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — WRBL News 3's Michelle Jennings spoke to a Harris County woman and a former Louisiana resident, who described experiencing Hurricane Katrina 20 years later.
Elizabeth Hilton remembers all too well the risks of living on the coast during Hurricane Katrina and went into detail on how she survived.
Hilton said that Louisiana has four seasons: Mardi Gras season, hurricane season, crawfish season, and football season. She emphasized that there is a hurricane season.
"I've certainly evacuated for a lot of hurricanes before," Hilton said. "You board up your windows, you do you do whatever you do and as a kid, you're like, 'OK, I'm going to pack an outfit or two, maybe three. And then I'm going to go visit my grandparents or I'm going to go visit friends, or we're going to go on a vacation.. and then we're going to come home and the house is going to be fine because it's always fine.'"
At 22-years-old, that is what Hilton thought Katrina would be. Her parents advised her to evacuate with them and her newborn child, named Warren.
However, Hilton made plans to contact a work friend who lived on the other side of town. She wanted to ask if she could sleep at her friend's house for a night or two until the storm blew over and her parents came back with the baby.
Hilton said that she changed her mind and couldn't say why. Her family home was in Slidell, La., for three months, and her family was not able to return.
"It's already emotionally devastating... to have to deal with it," Hilton said. "And then on top of that, the stress of the insurance companies being insurance companies. And then on top of that, family members taking advantage of you for their own personal gain. It was a lot."
Hilton lived in a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailer outside in the driveway. She had three changes of clothes but no crib for her newborn baby.
"How do you fix a house? If my car gets totaled, then I call a tow truck and say, 'get rid of this for me,' and then I go and I buy a new one, right? But what do you do when your house gets totaled? Hilton asked. "There's no tow truck for a house. There's no just buying a new one because they're all like this."
In 2008, Hilton was married and moved to Columbus. Her family's home was still not finished. Hilton said the only thing that gave many hope was football.
Hilton recalls an NFL football game where Former New Orleans Saints safety Steve Gleason blocked a punt.
"We watched... stinky Falcons... I hate them, God I hate them," Hilton expressed. "They went to punt the ball and Steve Gleason blocked that punt, there is a statue of that in front of the Super Dome right now. Steve Gleason blocking a punt because it was so much more than a play.
She added, "It was so much more than football it was so much more than a game, it was hope it was rebirth of an organization."
"They called it rebirth because it was. But it wasn't just rebirth of the football team, it was rebirth of the city. It was a rebirth of the people. It said, 'yeah, circumstances may be terrible, and they were. Your situation may be dire, and it is. But we can come together and there's hope on the other side,'" she said.
Hilton is part of many people remembering Hurricane Katrina 20 years later, and it's impact on their lives.
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