Katrina: One year later, Mumbai family picks up pieces

WASHINGTON, DC: On August 27, 2005, one of America’s culturally richest cities woke up to the news that Hurricane Katrina was to hit in less than two days. The Nagales – Bhairavi and Makarand – loved their New Orleans as they did their hometown Mumbai, but decided to leave anyway. It was a tough call. After all, they had come to love the city’s music, its lively people, its vibrant culture, its unique architecture, and the “world’s greatest seafood”. And yes, its Life.

 

Katrina changed all that, leaving damages worth $81 billion in its wake. The house in west New Orleans that the Nagales bought days before Katrina hit was damaged, too – the fence blew out, the garage was waterlogged and the roof was undone. The rest of the house was intact, but hope had taken a beating. Then, the power company Makarand worked for shifted base to Jackson, Mississippi. The Nagales decided they had enough. In April this year, they shifted to Little Rock in Arkansas, best known as former US President Bill Clinton’s hometown.

 

“It’s not the same as New Orleans,” says Makarand, “but life has to go on somehow.”

 

Katrina, in a sense, was déjà vu. In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan came, saw and destroyed property worth $13 billion in southern US. New Orleans had escaped then, but the Nagales were not about to take chances with Katrina. If Bhairavi was in the third trimester of her pregnancy when Ivan hit, she had three-month-old Taneesh when Katrina paid a visit. They had one word in mind – evacuate.

 

“It was a hard choice,” says Makarand. “We had bought a house in west New Orleans close to Lake Pontchartrain (whose levees broke and created the ensuing havoc), and we had put in a large emotional investment. But we knew that if Katrina came, the house would not be safe.”

 

Expecting their house to perhaps not remain standing when they returned (Katrina’s wind speed was 280 kmph), he and Bharavi packed every essential belonging into their truck, and were ready to evacuate to Houston in Texas, around 300 miles away. “We did not want the government to force us out, as they did on August 28,” says Makarand.

 

The drive up from New Orleans to Houston takes around five hours, and is one of the most scenic in the US. That day, it took the Nagales 19 hours to reach Houston. And when they did, it would be less than 24 hours before Katrina hit.

 

They had to leave Houston too because all hotels were filled up with evacuees and the one they got was not hygienic enough for their baby. They left for Austin the next morning, the day Katrina hit. “We expected the worst, going by media reports,” says Makarand.

 

In the event, the Nagales did not know the fate of their house for three weeks, when Makarand decided to return to New Orleans to assess the damage. Their house was standing, but little else. His company temporarily shifted to Mississippi until New Orleans came back to life. They had no choice -- the city they loved was destroyed, and its people had lost hope. “We were like gypsies,” says Makarand, who is originally from Vile Parle in Mumbai. “We had traveled a lot to be alive. We had decided that we had enough. The stress and anxiety were too much to bear.”

 

“People are still traumatized,” adds Bhairavi, who was brought up in Warden Road. “We meet several people, but no one talks about it.” For many, it is like a memory that has to be shut out.

 

Luckily, Makarand was offered a job in Little Rock in March this year. He decided to take it up as they both wanted to leave the traumatic memories of Katrina behind. “We had come to love New Orleans just as much as we loved Mumbai,” says Makarand.

 

“We still love it and we know it will be rebuilt but it is also a matter of survival. In the end, I guess, that is what counts.”