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New Orleans residents feel at home in Rome

By Mary Prickett
[email protected]
Staff Writer

After Hurricane Katrina, many people were forced to start their lives over. Some of these people came to Rome looking for help, and it was given with open arms.

Georgia Highlands College is one college that has some of these people in its midst. Moving to Rome and restarting their lives, two of these amazing people share their stories.

Normicka Forest Normicka Forest, mother of two and a computer information systems major, left Louisiana before the storm hit. With her parents back in New Orleans and other family members residing in Riverdale, Ga., she has started over in Rome.

Forest is in the work study program and started in the late semester of fall. �It�s pretty cool,� stated Forest about GHC; �People have been pretty helpful.�

�I had to start from scratch. It was a major event nobody ever dreamed would happen. My children are in school, and I�m working. Everything is really working out fine for me, like nothing ever happened,� said Forest.

Forest likes living in Rome. She is currently planning to graduate in the spring of 2008. �I feel like I�m better off now than I was then. Things only got better for me. Only the strong survive, and I am a survivor,� she said. As for now, Forest has no plans to go back to New Orleans.



Theresa KellettTheresa Kellett, who started work in the Enrollment Managment Office in September, left New Orleans only eight hours before the storm hit. Kellett lived by Lake Pontchartrain. The levy holding back the lake broke during the storm, emptying the entire contents of the Lake Pontchartrain into the city.

Kellett is originally from Lindale, Ga., and has family here. �We thought we would only be here for four days. I remember where I was sitting when we heard the news that the levy broke. My husband and I looked at each other and knew we would not be coming home. I try to look at the positive side of everything. It affected everything in my life. It�s not always a negative; it�s not negative,� said Kellett.

Kellett has been back to her home and was able to save a few heirlooms from her family. �I feel blessed that I came out with some heirlooms. I�m blessed, because some of our friends, when they walked into their house, turned around and walked back out. The force of the water stripped the first floor of their home away,� Kellett said.

She appreciates the outpouring of love and generosity the people of Rome, her family and GHC have shown her.

�People have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome. Not just coming home to Lindale, but coming home,� stated Kellett.

�It was bad what happened,� she said, �but the results have all been positive. I believe it will all work out, that everything is okay. Yeah, it was bad, but has all turned out good.�