Tulane evacuees settle into UCD law school
12.10.2009, 12:03
First-year law students Jessica Newman and Matthew Crosier are getting settled at UC Davis after fleeing from Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding that shuttered Tulane University, where they started the school year.
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Like many other universities across the nation, UCD has opened its doors to several college students displaced by the hurricane. The campus fielded 89 inquiries and offered to accommodate 29 students.
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Of those, 20 students have decided to enroll including seven in the medical school, three in the law school, three in the Graduate School of Management, one other grad student and six undergraduates, according to campus newspaper Dateline.
Most of these students will come to campus when fall quarter begins at the end of September. Newman and Crosier, however, arrived when the law school was already three weeks into the school year. Now they are trying to catch up in their classes and get their lives back to normal.
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Newman, 21, is a graduate of Natomas High School in Sacramento. She went on to UC Berkeley, where she earned a bachelor's degree in political science and interpretive biology.
Crosier, 24, grew up in Texas and earned a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from St. John's College in Annapolis, Md.
They both decided to study law at Tulane University. Newman was interested in environmental law while Crosier wanted to pursue a career in international law. They had been through orientation and a week of classes when Hurricane Katrina hit the region.
Crosier said he and his roommate were going to wait out the hurricane until it was upgraded to Category 5. They piled into a car with the roommate's cat on the morning of Sunday, Aug. 28, and started driving. It took five hours to travel the first 10 miles and 10 hours to reach Baton Rouge. It was a 20-hour trip to Dallas, Texas, where he stayed with friends for a few days before continuing on to his family in Lubbock.
Meanwhile, Newman and a friend had decided to wait out the storm at a hotel in the French Quarter. They felt it was safer than trying to leave because the western routes were closed and they would have been forced to drive north or east - toward the hurricane.
When the storm came through, Newman and the other hotel guests stayed in the third floor ballroom because it had few windows. The power went out, but they had flashlights and a battery-operated radio. News stations gave conflicting reports about the direction and intensity of the hurricane. From some distant windows, they could see the downpour and strong wind.
"It was amazing to see the force - the rain was horizontal," Newman said. "But it wasn't as bad as I was expecting."
On Monday evening, after the hurricane had passed, she walked around the neighborhood. There was a feeling of relief because initial damage didn't seem as bad as expected. Newman was making plans to return to her apartment. By Tuesday morning, everything changed.
Newman didn't realize the levees had broken until her dad called and informed her that the water was rising an inch every five minutes. She needed to get out of the city.
While the main roads weren't flooded yet, the side streets visible from the hotel were filled with about three inches of water.
Newman and her friend got in the car and started driving, but they were still unfamiliar with the area and didn't know where to go. They started following the other cars, which led them the wrong way.
"I had no maps, nothing," Newman said. "There was debris in all the streets. There were trees down. You were often driving on the wrong side of the streets," Newman said, adding that at one point they were driving on the center median.
Police officers said there was no way out of the city, so Newman and her friend returned to the hotel. There, someone offered advice for a way out and they started driving again.
With a cell phone in hand, they drove with guidance from Newman's mom who looked up maps online and told them where to turn. When one street was blocked, they tried another route. Over and over again until they got out.
"I was basically determined to get out because I knew if I couldn't, I would be stuck there for weeks," Newman said. "It was just going to be horrible if we stayed."
There were long lines at the gas stations and mini marts where people were trying to stock up on food. The first gas station she reached was having trouble making transactions because the backup generator had broken.
It took 11 hours to reach Dallas. Her mom flew out and they drove her car back to California. While driving through New Mexico and Arizona, Newman used her cell phone despite 'very bad reception" to start calling law schools in California about the possibility of enrolling there. Both UC Berkeley and UC Davis offered her admission. She chose the Davis campus because it was closer to her family in Sacramento and she liked their environmental law program.
They arrived home on Saturday, Sept. 3, and she started classes at UCD on Tuesday, Sept. 6.
Crosier started classes on Friday, Sept. 9. He had considered UCD when looking for law schools the first time around, but didn't apply. After the hurricane, he decided to attend UCD because he knew another student there.
Crosier said the university has been "great." In addition to accepting Crosier and Newman into the law program late, the university paid for their textbooks.
"They've been very nice," Newman said. "They've been very accommodating."
Newman is staying with her family in Sacramento while Crosier has found a room to rent in Davis.
"I have no idea what we'll be doing in the spring," Crosier said. "We'll have to play that by ear."
They don't know if Tulane University will reopen in the spring or if the classes they take at UCD will transfer if they do return. Maybe they'll like UCD and want to stay.
"We're just in a big limbo," Newman said.
They aren't sure what awaits them in New Orleans. They were able to take their most important items and a few clothes when they fled. But there's no way to know the condition of their other possessions.
Crosier's apartment was on an upper floor, so it may have survived damage. His car, which wasn't working when he needed to leave, is probably submerged. Newman's apartment was on the first floor, so all the new furniture and other belongings are no doubt ruined.
Newman said it has been difficult to turn on the news and see the damage and violence that followed the hurricane.
"You're seeing the pictures and you're just looking for a place or a landmark that you know," Newman said.
She thinks about the ways her situation could have turned out differently. She might have ended up in the Superdome if the hotel had been full or closed, or if she didn't have a way to get out of New Orleans.
"I could have been there," Newman said. "We made out very lucky."
Crosier said he has mixed feelings about getting back to school and a semi-normal life while others are still in the shelters.
"In a lot of ways, it's very surreal," Crosier said.