Some Hurricane Katrina evacuees are ready to call Nashville home.
Kevin Black left New Orleans’ now heavily flooded Ninth Ward on Sunday before Katrina hit.
He and nine other family members are in Nashville because they have a relative here. They’ve been staying at a hotel for nearly a week. Now, Black says they’re ready for to settle down.
“We decided that if we go back home we don’t think it’s gonna be nothing now because our houses is underneath the water. Right now we’re trying to get our apartment and get lives back on the right road.
Black’s 22-year old daughter, Keita, wore a big smile yesterday – she’s happy, she says, to start over.
“I feel like I’m starting a new life because I left everything in New Orleans, and this is a new beginning for me.”
Keita says even after New Orleans is rebuilt, she plans to stay in Nashville.
Black and his family were among hundreds of other evacuees waiting outside the Nashville Red Cross building yesterday. Officials there passed out financial vouchers for food, clothing, and medicine.
Black says he’s thankful he escaped the storm with his family, but like others, he’s still looking for friends.
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