A good story about a family who has found refuge in Sacramento after Katrina drove them from New Orleans.
An excerpt.
The calm after the storm
The Thompson family is settling into a new routine a year after fleeing Katrina for Sacramento
By Gina Kim -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Saturday, September 2, 2006
Editor's note: Raymond and Shelia Thompson told their story of surviving Katrina in The Bee during the Thanksgiving holiday, sharing why they were thankful to be living at the former Mather Air Force Base. We revisit them now, a year after Hurricane Katrina upended their lives, as they settle into new lives in Sacramento.
A few photos and a wedding video. That's all the evidence of life before Hurricane Katrina came and flung the Thompson family across the country.
The family that refused to split up, even when it meant that at least some of them would be rescued from the rising water, is still together and making their home in Sacramento. On the one-year anniversary of the storm this week, Raymond Thompson prayed over a dinner of baked chicken, string beans and Rice-A-Roni.
"I thanked God for being alive, for being in Sacramento, for everything people gave us, and I prayed for being here with my wife and family," says the 46-year-old father of three girls.
The Thompsons have built a new life, like thousands of others displaced by the fierce storm that left levees cowering and a city under water. Raymond has a job, the girls are in school, and they live in a tidy three-bedroom unit in a low- income housing community in a leafy neighborhood behind UC Davis Medical Center.
All they have from before are their memories and the pictures relatives have sent, offering random glimpses into their past -- a trip to Chicago, a kindergarten graduation, a Sunday dinner.
But they're alive and together, and that's what counts.
