A Look Back at My Hurricane Katrina Assignment

By Rebecca Callahan

My Katrina response began as a call center role and rapidly became a long deployment. Helping the team prepare for a press visit to the Greater New York chapter led to an interview on ABC’s World News Tonight which was crazy, but an amazing experience. 

Two days later, I flew to Houston only to discover that I was at the wrong airport and took the shuttle for 40 miles to Houston Astrodome and learned that I would then be going to Baton Rouge, LA and (for the first time in almost 20 years) would be driving a car across the country! I apparently was the only NYC volunteer with a driver’s license (that, to be honest, I only used to cash checks). We New Yorkers don't drive!

The only rental available was an Isuzu Rodeo with a stick shift! Having only used a stick over two decades earlier while learning to drive, it was a bit of a challenge, but my lovely teammates in the car were very kind. They even reminded me to use the clutch! 

Arriving in Baton Rouge, we were at a giant former K-Mart, and I began supporting the public affairs team. It was chaotic until a group of officials arrived. None of us noticed them until one quietly got up on a table and said, “Hello. My name is Thad Allen. I am leading this operation, and I want to let you know that we have never experienced this before; so, we have a wicked problem. Move forward. Do your best and know that you are going to “f” it up. We will all make mistakes and if anyone complains to you about it, have them take it up with me.” (Admiral Thad Allen was the lead federal official for the responses to Katrina and Rita and was incident commander for the Deep Horizon oil spill.) The entire vibe changed after that speech, and it was immediately less terrifying. So, move forward we did.

I worked alongside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was listening to them apologize repeatedly to everyone they spoke with on the phone. After about 30 minutes, I told both soldiers, “You must stop apologizing. These levee failures were not your engineering, but lack of maintenance. Stop blowing your reputation up and stop apologizing.” Unbeknownst to me, Todd Semonite, their boss (who went on to become the USACE Commanding Officer) was right behind me. “Where the heck were you 10 days ago when I needed you to tell them that!” I replied that I was up in New York City encouraging people in Katrina’s path to evacuate. Six months later, I was hired by USACE as a public affairs specialist and began my career in the Federal Government. 

We went to Slidell, LA, only to learn that there was no longer anything there but cement foundations, an immaculate roof with no house attached and a teddy bear in a tree. River Center in Baton Rouge sheltered more than 3,000 clients impacted by Kattrina and one of the first things I did was escort a BBC reporter around the complex when a 2-year-old ran at me and I picked him up to take him back to his mother's cot. As soon as I sat him down, he began screaming bloody murder until I picked him back up. So, I asked the mom if I could borrow her child for a while as I went around the room and kept him with me to sleep. The reporter asked how that became my job, and I explained that whatever lands in one’s lap becomes part of the job.  

The shelter was largely empty during the day for those who could go out, leaving children, parents, elderly and the disabled there to worry and to sleep. One child I called “Overalls” was going crazy and bouncing all over the place and when I went to ask her to stop, she said, “Why won’t anyone let me help?!” I looked at her amazed and said, “Are you saying you would like a job? We have tons of work that needs to be done. You just became an official sanitizer!” I then handed her a giant hand sanitizer and put her by the front entrance, letting her know that no one gets in or out until they have some. She was the most diligent sanitizer distributor I have ever known! 

I tried to assist the FEMA folks who tried to get footage of a person getting through on the 800 number for assistance. No one got through at River Center the entire time I was deployed. 

They played the opening football game between the New Orleans Saints and the Carolina Panthers on the main screens on September 11, 2005. It was a short time of relief for the shelter residents, and it honestly was the first time I had ever rooted for the Saints. I was interviewed by a French TV station where I ended up trying to explain how a face-mask penalty worked in French. Right afterward, the Baton Rouge sheriff laughed while saying to me, “We have been trying to explain football to them for decades now. If they don’t get it by now, nothing you can say will change that!”

Katrina was my first deployment. Rita hit right in the middle of it as well. I went home for about 20 days before Hurricane Wilma hit Florida and back to the grind I went!

ARCAN members can read about colleagues’ Hurricane Katrina experiences and share their own by joining the ARCAN Group Facebook chat here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/redcrossalumni.org