Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 15 September 2005 — Page 1

Housing Needed For Katrina Victims see details on page 31

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Vol. 15, No. 16 ^ Also Serving Anderson, Marion, Richmond And New Castle Communities September 15, 2005 Ex-Muncie native survives Katrina's ravages; writes about harrowing escape, return to New Orleans ordeal

Runako Tsitsi Kumbula

By Runako Tsitsi Kumbula The last weekend in August started out like any other. When I awoke Saturday morning, the weather was beautiful and I started planning what I was going to do that day since, for the first time in months, I did not have to work. As I flipped through the TV channels, I half heartedly listened as newscasters warned that a hurricane was brewing in the Gulf of Mexico and could potentially head straight for New

Orleans. Unfazed, I blew off the predictions of yet another hurricane warning as something being announced by alarmist weather reporters, pontificating about the ramifications of a hurricane of such magnitude. Like most people living in New Orleans, these hurricane forecasts always annoyed me because it appeared that the purpose was to scare us as much as possible and then inevitably, the hurricane would fall upon land in another loca-

tion and the newscasters would explain how the hurricane took a detour at the last minute. It almost seemed as though they enjoyed speculating about the potential consequences of a disastrous hurricane, not fully realizing the panic and preparation they created for those of us who would need to evacuate. I finally left my house at around 2 p.m. Saturday (Aug. 27) and noticed an unusual amount of traffic on the main street where I lived. There were droves of resi-

dents heading west toward Interstate 10, the highway that allows passage in and out of New Orleans. I had already decided that I was not going to be one of them this time. I had evacuated last September for Hurricane Ivan, spending 17 hours in traffic only for the hurricane to strike somewhere else instead. I had then vowed never to evacuate again, unless there was a near certainty that a hurricane was really heading straight for New Orleans. This was my first Saturday off in a long tirpe. I was not going to let anyone ruin it —and that included Katrina. I spent the day window shopping downtown on Canal Street and then had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Two Sisters, located on Bienville Street, just off of Canal Street, New Orleans. The restaurant is a hidden secret among locals, where you can eat an overflowing plate of catfish, macaroni and cheese, red beans and rice, cornbread and enjoy a tall glass of

overly sweetened tea, all for just $4.99. Later that evening, at around midnight, I did something that I had not done in a while: I headed for the French Quarters and on to Bourbon Street. Expecting to see a sparse crowd due to the hurricane warnings, I was pleasantly comforted by the large crowd of people, determined to have fun that evening, obstinate in the face of the looming hurricane—just like me. Reassured that the hurricane could not be that serious, I shoved Katrina completely to the back of my mind and proceeded to enjoy the evening. While there, I enjoyed my favorite drinkcalled, ironically enough, the Hurricane. Everyone was unusually festive that night and the DJs played off of the crowd of non-evacuees’ spirit, repeatedly praising the crowd for not being scared off by the hurricane. Finally, around 3 a.m., a friend decided it was time to continued on page 5

Ball State resident raises $1,700 in Hurricane Katrina relief funds

Everett Keys

By Felicia Lasley Ball State University junior Everett Keys, with help from Sigma Nu Fraternity at BSU and the Muncie Red Cross, has recently taken it upon himself to help raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The 3-day effort raised about $1,700. He chose to be a doer rather than a talker. “If we don’t look out for us (African Americans), than who will look out for us?...not just with a hurricane, but with anything. We should be helping each other out..."It over-

whelmed me how much black people talk. Just help out because if it happened to us, we would want help from others.” said Keys. However, Keys admits that fund raising for this cause was not always easy. “Sometimes we got a lot of money and sometimes people simply didn’t want to donate.” he said. Keys said that when he first began this effort, he tried to imagine himself as one of the victims of Katrina. “I tried to put myself in other people’s position(s). I couldn’t even bare to imagine it. Just imagining it was too much for me.” he said. Keys is a member of the Ball State University Black Student Association, Men of Color and, most recently, the Muncie Red Cross. He said that his lifelong goal is “to have peace of mind...Just to be able to look at myself as a good person, once I achieve that goal, everything else will fall into place.” he said. Keys advises others who want to help with the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, to go to the Muncie Red Cross or the Salvation Army. “I am a regular college student like everyone else. I am not a saint, but I really do feel better about helping. It’s not that hard to help. There’s self-fulfillment in helping others.” said Keys.