Blaring horns did not disturb the thoughts of Hurricane Katrina evacuee Arteeca Eccles as she watched an uninterrupted stream of brake lights creep along the backdrop of a dark New Orleans morning.
“We left for Texas at 3 a.m.,” said Eccles, an Xavier University freshman now enrolled at WSSU. “It seemed like a regular hot New Orleans morning was on the way.
“I finally got in contact with my parents right before I left,” she added, “but I didn’t really know how I was going to get home, so I was thinking about a lot.”
Eccles, a Charlotte native, is one of three students enrolled at WSSU from Golf Coast universities affected by Hurricane Katrina, which has been described as the third most destructive, expensive and intense tropical cyclone to hit the U.S. The other two students are from Southern University.
“I didn’t realize how [the hurricane] affected me until I got here,” Eccles said. “I basically had to replace my whole wardrobe because I just grabbed one outfit for the next day when my roommate made me leave with her.
“We could have prevented the loss of so much if we had known what was coming,” she said.
The hurricane made landfall near Empire, Louisiana, shortly after 7 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 29. After Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans, portions of the levee system there failed, flooding most of the city causing even more damage and death.
Dr. Donald Mac-Thompson, an associate professor of political science at WSSU, said he has both historical and family ties with New Orleans.
“I was devastated when I heard about the storm for many reasons,” said Mac-Thompson, a native of Freetown, Sierra Leone, “not just because my cousins lived there, but . . . there is a place in New Orleans called Freetown and there is a historical connection that exists between the Creoles of New Orleans and the Creoles of Freetown, Sierra Leone.”
Mac-Thompson, who describes himself as Creole, said “the federal government’s response was atrocious and it is something that is very difficult for us to forget.”
He is not alone with his outrage. A ground swell of anger directed at Michael D. Brown, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), forced his resignation last week. He has been replaced by R. David Paulison, a career firefighter who was head of FEMA’s emergency preparedness force.
WSSU has developed a fund to help support students and others displaced by the storm, and it has joined with more than 50 other local agencies and organizations to form Project Welcome.
Donations to the fund can be made at the WSSU cashier’s office between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The university also held a Gulf Coast memorial service last week, at which inspirational words and songs were featured as a way to encourage those who have lost family and friends in the affected areas.
WSSU and Project Welcome are signing up volunteers to help with the relief effort. To volunteer, call the WSSU Student Government office at 336-750-3360 or send an e-mail to qdebe622@wssu.edu.
“This should be everybody’s concern, not just the ones who have relatives down there or who may have connections with New Orleans. We all should take the issue very seriously and make it a priority to pray about it and also to offer tangible assistance to those who are in need,” said Mac-Thompson.