Resident Recalls Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

For Millburn-Short Hills resident Robert Tillotson the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hits a little closer to home, and he recalls the resilience and dedication of the New Orleans college students.

Tillotson, who serves on the Township Committee, spent weeks following the hurricane rebuilding a home he and his wife bought in the city when their oldest son decided to attend Tulane University. He and his wife are natives of the New Orleans area and continue to have family in the area. In 2005, their oldest son, Travis, was entering his senior year at Tulane University, and their youngest, Chris, was entering his freshman year there.

In the days before the Category 5 hurricane hit the United States, Tillotson and his wife were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary and decided to have the party in New Orleans. He had left before the storm approached, but the rest of his family was there.

"They got my youngest stuff into the dorm on the bed, and that's when Tulane announced they were evacuating," he said.

Tulane regularly evacuates the school if there's a major storm, he said, so students take it as an opportunity to go to Austin and have fun there. His mother-in-law had left for Baton Rouge, and that's when his wife's hotel was evacuated. She had hoped she could fly home before the storm hit, but it became clear she would need to evacuate via car.

But by the time she was leaving to go to Baton Rouge, which is a 60 mile trek, the highway was closed, Tillotson said. She had to loop through Tennessee and drive six hours. And the boys weren't going to be able to get back from Austin a day later like they had thought.

It took a week before Tulane officially announced they wouldn't open for the fall semester, he said, and other universities reached out to students. Travis went to Southern Methodist University, and Chris went to Indiana University. But his two sons, and many of their friends, insisted on returning to Tulane for the spring semester. Tillotson said that's when he knew he'd have to go to New Orleans and rebuild the home before then.

But he said he didn't know the extent of the damage to the house, and it was difficult to find out any information. A week later he received a call from a friend who saw a photo in the newspaper of the neighborhood with someone shoulder deep in water. "That's when I figured out we had water in the house," he said.

Then a friend at the gym called him because he saw his oldest son on CNN giving a tour of the house. "That's when I really got to see the damage to the house for the first time," he said.

When New Orleans officials agreed to let people back into the city, he said, Travis was in the line of cars waiting to get back into the city. "It was like waiting to get on the (George Washington Bridge)," he said. His son went straight to the house, and he was one of the first people back in the city.

The house had had six feet of water over two floors of the split-level house, Tillotson said. The electricity, appliance, air-conditioning were gone.

In New Jersey, Tillotson made lists of things he would need including tools, gas cans, cleaners and medical supplies. He packed his car and drove to New Orleans.

As he got closer to the city, it became more eerie, Tillotson said. In Mississippi closer to the Louisiana border, the trees were flattened along the side of the road. Some had been cut up, and the logs were piled on the side of the road. The Magnolia trees, which lined the center of the highway, were toppled over.

But it was even more eerie in New Orleans because where there were supposed to be people, there were none. Many had not returned to the city, the traffic lights were not working and no stores were open.

"Where you expected there to be people and services, there were none," he said.

His isn't located in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans where some said they could smell the death, Tillotson said, but there was a distinctive smell in the air. It was from the refrigerators that were dumped into the street. There also was five feet of debris piled up on the side of the road, which included windows, doors and appliances. There was no electricity, no water and no heat available.

"It was like a war zone," he said.

There was one grocery store open, an A&P, and Fat Harry's on St. Charles Avenue was the only place within five miles serving hot food. They served either burgers or red beans and rice. "You worked all days and went to Fat Harry's at night to eat," he said.

There were still looting issues, although the National Guard was patrolling the streets. Tillotson said he had borrowed a generator, but he knew it wouldn't last through the night. He placed candles in the windows so looters would know there were people in the house.

Once in New Orleans, Tillotson was prepared to work. He was able to locate a contractor to gut the house the day after he arrived. Tillotson said he was fortunate as one of the first people back in the city rebuilding because he could find people to do the work. But even then it was hard to find workers.

"I learned how to hang Sheetrock, which I have never done before," he said. "We needed to put in molding, so I did that."

They had bought a hot water heater, but they had trouble finding someone to install it. Tillotson said he and his son saw a pick-up truck down the street unload a water heater and heard the workers speaking Spanish. His son, who speaks Spanish, was successful in asking them to install the water heater.

A ladder fell off another contractor's truck, and his son chased the workers with it. He told the contractors he would return the ladder if they did the electrical work at the house.

"You had to do these type of things to get the work done," he said.

Tillotson also said how important the Red Cross was to those who were in the city working.  He said he was standing in line at the grocery store thinking he wasn't someone who needed the Red Cross, but he realized he had no way to cook the food he was about to buy. So he took advantage of the hot meals provided by the Red Cross.

"They didn't feed you airplane food," he said. It was hot, there was fruit and there was water. And there was plenty of it.

"I thought they did a superb job," he said. "They drove up and down the street (helping people)... I just used them for an occasional lunch."

What Tillotson took away from the experience was the resilience of the college students, many of whom aren't from New Orleans. His son and his friends in the house had to rely on extension cords from outside for electricity for three months, he said.

"You had a group of well-to-do kids who had choices, and they decided they wanted to go back," he said. "They are better for it... They went through a lot more than I did."

Tillotson and his wife still go to New Orleans three or four times per year, and he feels the poorer segment of the population is still struggling. It was harder for them to come back to the city because they didn't have insurance on their homes, he said, and they are the people who helped made the city unique.

He cited the Camellia Grill, a breakfast place, as a restaurant that had a hard time re-opening after the hurricane. There always was a line for a meal, but part of its popularity was because of the people who worked there, he said. They would give tips about the city and tell stories. But those people had a hard time returning, and the owners had to help them return to New Orleans, Tillotson said.

And he still rents out the house, although it's not to college students now. The three people living there now are helping rebuild the city for the federal government. One is helping reforest the swamp, and the other two are working on various projects for the Army Corps of Engineers.