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Survivors
Vicki’s Story
Vicki Dalgo and her family lived in a lovely home in southern Mississippi. She had three children – ages 8, 15, and 17 – and a husband that evacuated together to Niceville, FL when they heard Hurricane Katrina was coming. After the storm had passed, her father-in-law drove by the house and told them that it was fine and the water hadn’t reached it. The family was relieved for a while, until a friend of Vicki’s went inside the house and found it in shambles. Her father-in-law had only seen the water line as it receded and assumed that was where it had settled, without entering the house.
When the Dalgos returned home, they brought many recovery supplies such as dehumidifiers with them, expecting the worst after her friend’s report. They were in awe of all the destruction. Everything was piled in the middle of all the rooms, “like there had been a tornado in each room.” All of the doors were jammed closed, from furniture on the other side and from swelling of the wood.
They were able to salvage most of their clothes, putting them in her friend’s indoor pool to keep them wet and gradually running them through the wash. They did nothing but laundry for about a week, as the dehumidifiers ran nonstop to dry out the wood, which took three and a half months to completely dry.
They paid rent to stay in an undamaged home, as they were buying supplies to repair their home. On top of that, their mortgage tripled, but their income had not.
Vicki remembers the emotional struggles being much harder than the financial ones. “It was more the loss of memories that was hard,” she recalls. “Your child’s favorite book, little things like that which you can’t get back. It’s okay to haul it out to the curb, but when the claw comes to pick it up, [then it’s hard.]”
Vicki also recognizes the good things that came from Katrina. She worked with FEMA as a crisis counselor for disaster relief, and remembers people being very relatable. They had all been through the same thing, so it gave them common ground. They could share with each other and empathize, and were more socially receptive. “We were a community,” she says. “Neighbors who never would have spoken to each other became best friends.”