Life after Katrina

Fargo family lived in New Orleans when storm hit, were forced to regroup, reboot life  

By Carol Stender

North Dakota State University (NDSU) associate music professor Jeremy Brekke has weathered many a snowstorm living in the upper midwest, but 20 years ago, he endured another kind of storm - Hurricane Katrina - and its aftermath.

Jeremy Brekke, NDSU associate professor of trumpet, held a similar position at Loyola University in New Orleans 20+ years ago. He lived there  when Hurricane Katrina hit. His family now calls Fargo home, but the influence of New Orleans and its culture, music and people, remains strong. Photo by Carol Stender

Jeremy, an East Grand Forks native, his wife Kelly, and children Miles and Molly, called The Big Easy home from 2002 to 2008 and they loved it. He was the assistant professor of trumpet for Loyola University in New Orleans at the time. The culture, the people, and the music resonated with them.

Jeremy, especially, felt a connection to the area. As a trumpeter, he was inspired by the performances of New Orleans trumpeter Al Hirt.

He grew up in a musical family and completed his undergraduate music studies at NDSU. He taught three years at Langdon, N.D., and then performed on Royal Carribean cruise ships for a few years playing for such performers as Charo and Bowser from the group Sha Na Na.

Jeremy met Kelly at the University of Northern Colorado where he completed his masters and doctorate degrees before the two started their family and moved to New Orleans.

The Brekkes had experienced hurricanes prior to Katrina. The family had evacuated twice to Austin, Texas, in previous storms, staying one night for each storm-related trip.

“That’s what we thought would happen again,” Jeremy said. “We were on our way to the airport because we had a flight to go to a wedding. We had the two kids with us and we packed for a weekend.”

As the family drove to the airport, they learned their flight was canceled. Next came an order for mandatory evacuation. That means that all roads became one-way vistas leading out of the city. They couldn’t return home and, instead, drove 10 hours to Tennessee where they stayed with Kelly’s distant relatives.

They learned the hurricane had hit New Orleans and it was havoc. The levees, that normally would hold the gulf water back, were compromised. Water surged under the levee system and flooded the city.

“The flooding was everywhere,” he said.

While many left the city, some remained behind including neighbors who walked through six-foot floodwaters, lifting their children above their heads, to seek shelter at the Superdome.

Those who stayed were often the elderly and people who didn’t have a way to leave, he said.

The Brekke family traveled to Vermont and stayed with Kelly’s parents for a week. But they, like many Katrina evacuees, were cared for not only by family and friends, but strangers who wanted to help.

Someone gifted them the use of a condo while the family was temporarily displaced in Vermont. People they knew from their days at the University of Northern Colorado, where the couple met, helped. They were given clothes and money.

Schools across the country welcomed New Orleans students as families contemplated rebuilding or moving on from the storm damaged region. Loyola University students were also able to enroll in colleges wherever they were temporarily housed until the University could reopen.

Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico area on Aug. 29, 2005. The Brekkes returned to the city a month later. They had locked the house before they left and discovered that the six-foot high floodwaters had left three feet of water in their home. And it was hot.

“There wasn’t any wind damage,” Jeremy said. “But we had three feet of water in the house. When something sits in three feet of water for three months, you get mold. We had mold of every color.”

Some neighbors were able to return shortly after the storm and broke windows of their house to get air circulating, he said.

Rescuers checked every home to make sure all inhabitants were counted. A large mark was placed on each home noting it had been checked. And there were those who perished in the storm and flooding. Katrina caused over 1,800 deaths and $125 billion in damages.

While Kelly’s family watched Miles and Molly, who were three and two respectively at the time, Jeremy and Kelly went to New Orleans to check on their home. They donned white zip-up suits and masks to start the clean-up.

“You try to save what you can,” he said. “Then you just dump everything on the curb. They came everyday with machinery to take the garbage from the curb. You have to gut everything out. You take down the walls and air out the space.”

There was no power, but they persisted with as much cleaning as they could before returning to Vermont.

The Red Cross provided food as people returned to their homes to clean up, he said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was also helpful in providing assistance.

Jeremy returned to their home in December to rebuild and focused first on the kitchen.

His equipment was all battery operated, as they still had no electricity. He had a place to stay elsewhere and would work on the home by day and recharge the batteries at night.

He was in line to get a FEMA trailer, but says he considers himself fortunate he didn’t get one. Jeremy would have had to sell it and that was one less concern he had to handle at the time.

Jeremy was working on the home late in the afternoon on Dec. 20 when he noticed the power had returned to the street light.

“There wasn’t power to the house, but at least they had it now on the streets,” he said. “I went out on the street and did a little dance of joy.”

Kelly and the children returned to New Orleans in February. The family was reunited.

“And we started over again,” he said. “We loved the city even more after Katrina.”

Many people joined them in returning to New Orleans.

“I went back to work at my job at Loyola,” he said. “I returned because of the culture and the food and the music. It was everything I mentioned during my job interview at Loyola. I said I was ecstatic to go there. This city has such a history. It’s more like a European city in its culture and diversity.”

Jeremy is at home in Fargo, but New Orleans will always hold a special place in his heart.

“We have beans and rice on Mondays, wash day. Make a King Cake with the baby in it,” Jeremy said. “The house in Fargo is adorned with New Orleans art and pictures.”

The family also takes out bags of beads and Mardi Gras paraphernalia during the Mardi Gras season.

“Parades in these parts are not like the Mardi Gras parades,” he said. “The Mardi Gras parades are family fun and everyone is out for a good time.”

And when it comes to music...

“I have been bringing the sounds of New Orleans to the Fargo area since we came here,” he said. “I was lucky enough to play in a group in New Orleans where I learned a lot of the musical traditions they have.”

And people can hear Jeremy share that New Orleans flavor in the area.

“I lead a group called the Mardi Gras Kings and have been playing and spreading that music throughout the region and on Mardi Gras,” he said.