In the past, Kristin Spack has used a hurricane evacuation as an excuse to take a vacation to Florida with friends.
This year was different.
The destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina forced students like Spack, a 21-year-old communications major from Loyola University in New Orleans, to find new schools.
One of the largest natural disasters in U.S. history effectively destroyed New Orleans, put Spack’s home under four feet of water and closed Loyola for fall term.
“Everything was destroyed,” Spack said. “Every personal belonging I had to my name was in my apartment, and it’s all gone. My landlord has been back to the house and surveyed the damage, and he’s trying really hard to salvage what he can, but 99 percent of everything in that house has been destroyed.”
As university students start their first week of school, Spack is one of thousands of students who are either postponing their education or finding new schools as universities across the nation are helping displaced students by offering special aid, payment deferrals and grants.
Spack, who was entering her senior year and had just finished moving into her basement apartment in uptown New Orleans when the evacuation procedure began, received many calls from friends around the nation as news spread of Katrina’s damage.
She decided to stay with University student Army Feth in Eugene until the city reopened.
“People who aren’t from an area that deals with hurricanes fail to understand that it’s hurricane season,” Spack said. “We deal with this three to four times a year. It’s a very typical procedure.”
Spack said she left her apartment on Aug. 27, when evacuation was still voluntary, but she didn’t realize the severity until news spread that the levees had broken.
“Everyone in New Orleans knows that we’re below sea level and when the hurricanes start, people always mention the possibility of the levees breaking, but it’s almost jokingly,” Spack said. “But no one ever expects the worst that can happen to happen.”
The Loyola campus itself sustained minimal damage, but was forced to close its doors because of damage to the city. According to an announcement by Kevin William Wildes, president of Loyola University New Orleans, the campus might re-open in January.
“I never expected to leave New Orleans,” Spack said. “Now I won’t be graduating in May as planned, but now I’m not in a huge rush.”
Now settling into Eugene and the University, Spack is hunting for a job and getting comfortable in Oregon.
“I had my first class this morning and it was in a huge room with stadium-style seating and projectors,” she said. “We just don’t have classes that size at Loyola. It definitely got the heart beating a bit faster than usual.”
Spack said she was angry upon hearing how poorly the government was handling the relief in New Orleans.
“New Orleans is a port city. It’s very important economically and culturally, and when you see the city destroyed you lose all of that,” Spack said. “It just makes you wonder if anyone really cares, or if people are just asking themselves, ‘Does it matter?’ “
Other displaced students have received housing, furniture and other necessities from an outpouring of support in Eugene.
Law student Paul Tassin has received a “king’s ransom” since arriving in Eugene, he previously told the Emerald. A local man gave him an apartment, furniture, groceries and a bike to ride, he said.
Equipped with a laptop, a tent and a few changes of clothing, Tassin headed for Jackson, N.C., as the storm approached.
“I just evacuated with no particular idea where I’d go,” he said.
Spack said that most local people are just curious and interested in her experience, but she is wary to mention to classmates that she is from New Orleans.
“I don’t want to be ‘the hurricane girl,’ ” she said.

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