| Katrina
aftermath: Personal stories from ground zero | | |
| "I applied for unemployment,
and they want to give me $150 a week. You can't live on that. The longer we wait
to get back, the deeper we get in debt," she says. "My only credit card
has about $100 left on the balance. We paid for so much stuff before we met these
people. We just didn't know we were going to be gone for so long."
Mary T. deBrueys
Kenner resident Mary T. deBrueys, 50, suffered only minor damage to her home,
but her income in New Orleans is all but gone. As the owner of a tutoring and
diagnostic business, she is faced with the fact that most of the students in the
metropolitan area -- which represented more than 90 percent of her clients --
have relocated to schools out of town. "No one is there.
The business has literally disappeared," she says. "For me and the people
who contract with us, it's making people look for other things. No one knows or
has the dependability we had at one time." DeBrueys is
hoping that some parts of the business will be salvageable, but she can't count
on anything being dependable for quite some time. She is actively looking for
a job in Baton Rouge and has already enrolled three of her children in local schools. Casimir
Pfalzgraf
While the city of New Orleans may eventually emerge from
the disaster, many state and local officials believe that residents of St. Bernard
Parish will never be able to return home. Along with devastating floods and wind
damage, an oil leak from a local refinery has made the entire area toxic. Chalmette
resident Casimir Pfalzgraf, 49, lost his home, his business and his entire neighborhood.
He, his wife and his two daughters have been on the road for almost two weeks
bouncing from hotel to hotel. Their family savings are running lower by the day. "The
alternative to that is going to a gymnasium with 500 other people. I don't see
that as an option, because I'm not going to put my two girls through that,"
says Pfalzgraf.
He left without his tools and without some of his important
financial and business documents. This is the third time since 1998 that the New
Orleans area has had major evacuations and, like many others, Pfalzgraf thought
this was just going to be another two- or three-day getaway. He's counting on
a little assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to get back on
his feet but is frustrated with the process. "I'll
make my own money, I just need something to get started. To get back to work.
I don't want to sit around and wait for someone to hand me something," he
said. "I've got a credit card that is maxed out, a debit card that's down
to almost nothing. I'm even looking at selling the two computers I have with me
as an emergency. The money is going quicker than I can get a hold of it." | 
