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Sanctuary in Laguna

One day the Wusthoff family was leading a normal life in their

hometown, New Orleans -- going to the movies, spending time with

friends. Two days later their lives were turned upside when Hurricane

Katrina hit.

Nothing will ever be as it was for the displaced family members,

who have found refuge at a family member’s house in Laguna Beach.

Ariel, 13, is now attending Thurston Middle School, and her

brother Wolf, 17, is at Laguna Beach High School.

Ariel and Wolf are two of seven students attending Laguna Beach

schools after leaving home due to the hurricane.

On Tuesday the family talked about their story, a tumultuous

journey with an uncertain outcome.

“One day everything was normal and the next day everything was

gone,” Ariel said. “It’s hard to say how it’s changed me, but it has.

Every experience will change you; I don’t know how this one will.”

Janet and Charles Wusthoff, the children’s parents, had to make a

tough decision about where to go -- knowing that Janet, who is a

nurse, would have to stay behind to help in the aftermath.

Charles’ sister and brother-in-law, Louise and Larry Allison,

embraced their family with open arms, inviting them to stay as long

as they needed at their Laguna Beach home.

“Saying goodbye after the storm, there was still so much going

on,” Janet said. “We were all staying in the same room together. We

said good night. I turned around and looked, and we were all on our

backs with our eyes open.”

Janet said each one of them talked about something in the house

that they lost or left behind.

“We have three cats there, and we don’t know anything about them

either,” Janet said. “The kids packed their school books; they were

going to do homework. They thought they would be back at school right

away.”

Ariel remembers what seems to be the last normal part of her life.

“I was with my friends, and we had gone together to see a movie

Saturday before the hurricane hit,” Ariel said. “We said ‘bye, but

you didn’t know you wouldn’t see them again. One day they’re gone,

and you don’t see them in a long time.”

“When we headed out, we wanted to make it here as quick as

possible,” Wolf said. “It was my turn to drive; it was 6 or 7 in the

morning -- I started to feel really ill. I had witnessed all these

things, and it really hadn’t sunk in.”

Ariel and Wolf said they appreciate the kindness of the Laguna

community, which has donated money, school supplies, clothes and

food.

But they still have had a hard time adjusting. Wolf wants to find

a job. He feels uncomfortable having people give them things.

“Every day I wake up here and go to school; it feels like some

kind of weird dream,” Wolf said.

“I miss my friends a lot; that’s the really sad part,” Ariel said.

“My friends are scattered all over the place.

“The thing I miss most is the concept of being in New Orleans, a

familiar place, being able to go somewhere and know everybody.”

“You’ve lost your friends and neighborhood,” Janet said. “We don’t

even know if people are going to come back. It’s not just a home --

it’s everything.”

Janet was on a short visit to see her family in Laguna after

receiving a call from her daughter, who was distressed, sobbing,

missing her friends, her mother and her life.

“I would call every night and they would have good days, but one

day she was so sad,” Janet said.

Janet couldn’t bear her daughter’s anguish and got on the next

plane. It was the first time Janet had seen her family since their

departure.

Ariel recalled going back and looking over the levy.

“It was emotional and stuff,” Ariel said. “It hasn’t hit me like

this really hasn’t happened.”

“I’m a nurse, so I stayed,” Janet said. “I was at one of the three

hospitals that stayed open.”

She said patients from the New Orleans airport were sent to the

hospital where she worked.

“There wasn’t much relief. A lot of people [doctors and nurses]

had second thoughts about coming back,” Janet said. “I’ve worked

there 14 years. It’s a good hospital. I wanted to be there. I wasn’t

required to be there.”

Before the hurricane hit, the Wusthoff family sought shelter at

the hospital where Janet worked.

They stayed in the psychiatric ward, where Janet worked, with one

other family.

“In other parts of the hospital, they had people scattered on cots

and things,” Wolf said. “Since there weren’t laws anymore people were

doing what they wanted to do. There were stories of looting in

different areas in the hospital since it was hard to monitor.”

Janet said it was surreal.

“I was outside New Orleans Parish and dozens of military choppers

were flying overhead with armed military all over the hospital,”

Janet said.

“We looted the pharmacies with permission,” Janet said. “We didn’t

know when supplies would come in. We served two tiny meals to

patients because we didn’t know when food was coming.”

There was only one generator going with no air conditioning, so

they had to fan the patients by hand to keep them cool.

“We were on strictly emergency power for medical equipment,” Janet

said.

Wolf said he remembers the doctors working around the clock,

exhausted; he said it really touched him.

“When we left the hospital I remembered on our way out of town

that we had to try and get the cats because they were still there,”

Wolf said. “While we were in the hospital nobody had assessed the

damage, nobody had any idea.”

The Wusthoff’s house is located at the 17th Street canal where the

levy breached.

“I still don’t know about the house. At one point I looked and the

water was at the gutters; five days later it was two feet below the

gutters,” Janet said.

“Coming to visit my family in Laguna has revived me,” Janet said.

“A lot about Laguna Beach has revived me. On my way here I felt so

disconnected; I couldn’t even talk to people, they couldn’t relate.”

The horrors she experienced and the stories she heard changed her.

Janet did not have a good night sleep until she came to Laguna.

“My experience here has been good for the most part,” Wolf said.

“People have been nice; they seem very genuine and sincere about

their feelings,” Wolf said. “They’ve been helpful.”

Ariel said she likes Laguna Beach.

“It’s really cool here; it’s the best place I could be to forget

about everything that’s going on,” Ariel said.

A friend of the Allison’s has set up an account at South County

Bank, 540 S. Coast Highway, in the Wusthoff’s name for donations.

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