Kansas State University - Royal Purple Yearbook (Manhattan, KS)

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K interviews by Krister Day photos by Christopher Hanewinckel left P What was your first reaction? I realized I wasn ' t going back for a while, so I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. I started to get settled down, and I had time to think about it. I thought about all the stuff that happened and it started becoming depressing. How are you adjusting? I ' ve been OK. Sometimes when I don ' t have anything to do I think about it. but It ' s good that we ' re in a good place. Everyone has been really nice, and I ' m starting to make new friends here. It could be worse. I Mug come m itime r alld lim ;WS, O ' Reiifs tlie JeffOALMANN Will you go back to New Orleans? I ' ve thought about it. I would like to see it. I don ' t think there is anything I can do to help, so I think it ' s best to stay away. I ' ll go back to visit, but I don ' t think I ' ll ever live there again. My friends moved, and my parents relocated to Houston, so there isn ' t a family tie there anymore. What will you take away from the experience? I hope I can show people not to take things for granted. The little problems you have in your daily life don ' t matter in the scheme of things. As for what K-State can do for me, it showed me a different part of the country. It ' s a small town, which is a little different than New Orleans. The school is good and the professors are eager to help the students. What was your first reaction? I was born and raised in Nigeria, and I just came here three years ago, so I haven ' t seen or witnessed hurricane devastation. Last year, in August, for Hurricane Ivan, we went to Texas and came back four days later and nothing happened. So, this time around I expected it to be the same way, but it turned out to be more disastrous. AlbertOKO How are you adjusting? It ' s not any different than Missouri. I spent two years in Missouri working on my masters ' degree. It might be new to the New Orleans indigenous people, but I ' ve already had my ties with the Midwest, Will you go back to New Orleans? My career is my pathfinder, so as a geologist I expect to work with oil companies, and wherever that sends me I have no objections. I went to New Orleans Oct. 27 and it was a ghost town. How has K-State affected you? We ' re all glad to be here, and I ' m sure the geology department is glad to have us. I think we are all going to graduate from K-State, and when I ' m an alum and 1 get that letter to support my alma mater, I ' m going to support K-State. What will you take away from the experience? Put your trust in God and be willing to rise at any adversity. I had a full scholarship to the University of New Orleans - all my school fees were paid for - and I had a job making $4,000 every month. I was a comfortable guy and then this hurricane drove me out of my job and my school. You think, I have to start my life again, and that ' s the situation. What was your first reaction? I just moved into a new apartment and I didn ' t have cable, so I didn ' t know the hurricane changed paths. My friends called me and said, hey, we ' re leaving, and I said, why? I thought I would be back in three days, because that ' s how it usually is, so I took my dirty clothes, my laptop and my books for the classes I was taking. How are you adjusting? I ' m from the Midwest (Sikeston, Mo.) and I hadn ' t been home for a while, so I thought 1 would go see them. I had gotten so much into the relaxed environment of New Orleans, I forgot how rule-oriented the Midwest is. 3 I ElizabethPOWERS Will you go back to New Orleans? I ' m interested in the petroleum industry, so it was either going to be New Orleans or Houston. I have an internship in New Orleans from Janu- ary to March, but if I hadn ' t gotten that, I wouldn ' t go back, especially seeing how they dumped everything into the lake. What will you take away from the experience? 1 was very mad at the government; I thought it was very disgraceful. It was ridiculous they couldn ' t get all those people out. but you had all these reporters getting in. It ' s a misfortune that we were embarrassed in front of the entire global community, but adversity makes you stronger. I don ' t think you guys realize how generous you are. What you do on an everyday basis has such a big impact, but it ' s above and beyond and very much appreciated. What was your first reaction? I was thinking like everyone else - two or three days after the storm clears, we would head back to the city. We left that Sunday - which was my birthday - and went to Tampa Bay, Fla. I found out that in the neighborhood where I stayed, the water rose over the levee and our neighborhood was gone - pretty much the whole ninth ward. IraRODNEY 1 How are you adjusting? At first it was a real hard adjust- ment. We ' ve been up here for about a month, and everything is going pretty well. The only negative thing is I have so much separation between my family and friends. All I ' m worried about is the cold weather. Another thing is New Orleans is so flat and linear, and the hills here are killing me. Will you go back to New Orleans? I d on ' t know about living there, but I would like to check it out for myself and get a first-hand look. I ' ll be back to visit, but I don ' t think I want to settle down there. What will you take away from the experience? This disaster has given me a new perspective on life. I think it was a blessing for everyone. Even for people who lost a lot, they do have their family. There was a lot of corruption in New Orleans, and this was a way the Lord has taken people away from that situation and put them in a new place. Everyone has a new slate. If you see someone, speak to them instead of looking at them. Just a friendly hello can make someone ' s day, because you never know what someone is going through. I coverage of Kathna continued on page 24 hurricane katrina23

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Geology students share their KATRINA EXPERIENCES What was your first reaction? It was overwhelming to think about what just happened. It was a big blow to everybody and then to top it off, you couldn ' t even go back in and start rebuilding because the water was still sitting there. The worst part was when the phone lines went down, including cell phones. I wasn ' t able to get in touch with any of my family and I didn ' t know if they survived or had gotten out. ' What was your first reaction? It was a Category 1, but since we have two little girls we decided to evacuate. By the time we got to Monroe, it was upgraded to a Category 5. We weren ' t certain if our family evacuated because it happened so fast. When John (Myers) came to bed, that ' s when he informed me the levees breached. I just lay in bed and cried because there wasn ' t much else to do. We had no idea what to do, but our first priority was to find out if our family was alive. Not knowing was the worst part - no radio, no phone contact, no television. SaraMCINTYRE How are you adjusting? Once everything started to settle down, I started to think about things - the loss of everything, the homesickness. You can either go with it or completely fall apart. Fortunately, I went with it and adjusted relatively well. I ' m up here not with my friends and family - it ' s a different way of life up here. Will you go back to New Orleans? I will probably never live in New Orleans again, but north of Lake Pontchartrain I might. I just have no desire to live in New Orleans ever again. What will you take away from the experience? We live in a world today where everybody is cynical of everybody else. You wouldn ' t stop on the side of the road and pick up a hitchhiker because there is that doubt, but I found there is a lot more good in people than what I originally thought - not just in Manhattan and Kansas but everywhere. My friends that have been displaced have said the same thing. Even in a disaster you can find the silver lining, and my silver lining was that I have a lot of strength in me I didn ' t know I had. I ' m a lot stronger from this experience. 22student life JuliMOORE Will you go back to New Orleans? At this point, as a permanent decision, I don ' t see it happening. There are a lot of serious issues New Orleans needs to address before anyone goes back to the city. A lot of things need to be addressed before it ' s safe to go back - pollution, toxicity, the school systems. We went back to try to salvage stuff, but we were only able to get one Rubbermaid tub of things. How has K-State affected you? I think the most important thing is K-State became like a surrogate mom. The administration welcomed us in; told us not to worry about the details like money and admissions and just focus on school. They took that entire load off our shoulders. The spirit K-State has had with the fund- raisers makes us feel good that even though we ' re here, there are things people can do for those down there. The geology department was great about making us feel like a part of the department. What was your first reaction? That night when the levee broke and the water started to pour in, that was when life as I knew it was over. You don ' t know what to do. Luckily, the next day when I woke up, I got a call from Dr. IrisTotten. She said, Why don ' t you come up? We ' ll let you finish your degree here, and you can stay with us until you find another place. I didn ' t think about anything; my big thing was trying to get here. How are you adjusting? I ' m adjusting OK, but my wife isn ' t too well. She likes Manhattan and the school, but s he wants to be home. Our biggest worry was financial aid, but we got it here from the University of New Orleans in two weeks. We had no money, no jobs - we left New Orleans with our car and three changes of clothes for myself, my wife (Juli Moore) and my two kids. ' M;e«S :«ee(iOi MoMORSE How are you adjusting? I like the weather; I love fall. Everybody has been wonderful, but it ' s definitely an adjustment. Will you go back to New Orleans? I don ' t think I ' m ready to go back and see the city. I need a little bit more time to heal before. Everyone says to go back and get closure; I don ' t think I want to see it how it is. What will you take away from the experience? I ' ve become a lot less materialistic. What you buy is just disposable. The only thing you have is your family, friends and your memories. You should spend your new life making new memories because, literally, you could be planning on going to a community function and the next day you could no longer have a community. The negative I ' ll take with this is a certain distrust for our elected officials. For years they knew the levees would only hold a Category 3 storm. I was a sporadic voter, and now I know it ' s important to get someone who will do the job. Kansas has made me more aware that your vote counts. JohnMYERS Will you go back to New Orleans? Never. It ' s not worth it. At any given time a levee can break, and you lose everything. It ' s not worth living in an area where a storm can come through and wipe the slate clean. As a geologist, you look at the long-term effects of the pollution they pumped out of there. You keep hearing con- tradicting views that the air is safe to breathe, or no, it ' s not. Having kids, I have a responsibility to make sure they ' re safe. What will you take away from the experience? We lost basically everything. We got our pictures and our documents, but the things you ' ve collected over your life are gone; the house you bought and invested so much time and money in is gone. The good thing is, K-State is a much better school, and there are better opportunities. The people all over the country and especially in Manhattan have done so much for the hurricane victims. We were eating dinner at Carlos 0 ' Kelly ' s and a lady overheard me on the phone, and she paid for our dinner. The geology department has been great, and so has the community. ;i ' Itliiii aatedt ■It mill I lerieiiH :3el(a ' ' m ' mi

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During the last day of collections, Joni Weinman, marketing employee for Intercollegiate athletics and graduate student in counseling and student development, helps Todd Prater, Manhattan resident, unload diapers and supplies for Katrma victims. A truck owned by the football team took supplies to the UMCOR Sager Brown Depot In Baldwin, La. The althletics department also collected money at football games. Christopher Hanemncket Inside the K-State Student Union, Sept. 8, Bilgah Moka- Mollki, freshman in apparel and textiles, donates money to the American Red Cross. Members of Zeta Phi Beta sorority collected clothing, food and toiletries to help the victims of the hurricanes. Other organizations accepted donations. The Black Student Union held a vigil and the Marianna KIstler Beach Museum of Art collected money to restore museum collections In New Orleans. Christopher Hanewincl el 24 I