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Evacuees find safe haven at Darlington
Sep 22, 2005 4:11 PM
By Tannika King - Faculty
Written by Marc Dadigan, Rome News-Tribune staff writer, published 9/22/05
After Hurricane Katrina had swept through her home in Pascagoula, Miss., Johana Bucci, a boarding student at Darlington Upper School, was able to watch the storm make landfall from a distance.
Her parents, both doctors at a local hospital, got a closer view of the storm and had some shocking news for Johana when they managed to contact her.
“I was talking to my mom, and I kept asking what was left of the house,” Johana said. “She kept saying it was gone, but it just didn’t register. I couldn’t believe it was happening.”
While Katrina left Johana without a home, it also left thousands of students without a school, and a small cadre of Gulf Coast teenagers have found their way to Darlington, which has adopted them while their home schools languish in the post-Katrina quagmire.
Johana said she and another student from Pascagoula, Julia Watt, were anointed as the New Orleans students’ unofficial tour guides as they could easily understand the personal upheaval the displaced students were experiencing.
“I think we all can understand where we’re coming from,” Johana said. “Talking with them is a way to ventilate, to get the stress out.”
Caroline Frilot, 17, certainly can commiserate with Johana, as her family home was flooded by several feet of water, destroying her baby pictures, furniture and other valuables.
“We didn’t really expect it to hit us, so we didn’t prepare the home,” she said.
With her private school in the city closed at least until January, Caroline tried attending school in Shreveport, La., but discovered Darlington while searching for boarding schools on the Internet.
“I’ve never been to a new school before, so it’s been tough,” she said. “But everyone has been very welcoming and sweet. Probably the hardest part is that all your friends from home are spread out all over the place.”
A classmate of Caroline’s at the New Orleans school, Millard Morrison, 17, said he, too, was expecting the hurricane to miss New Orleans. The Saturday before the storm, he woke up, got his breakfast and enraged his mother when he casually turned off the weather channel.
“She told me then that we were going to have to leave, and at first I was like, ‘Wait, I’ve got plans this weekend,’” he laughed. “I never thought we’d have to evacuate.”
Unlike Caroline, Millard didn’t have to do any searching for Darlington, as several generations of men in his family attended the school.
“It was almost like the hurricane finally gave them a reason to send me here,” he said.
He has been joined at Darlington by his friend Will Weston, whose Metairie Park Country Day School is also closed until the winter. Together the pair made a trip back home the weekend after Labor Day to help sift through the damage at their houses. What they saw shocked them, they said.
“It was unbelievable,” Will said. “It looked like the city had turned into a third-world country.”
“I still can’t believe it,” Millard said. “It’s like the whole place is cut off from the rest of the world.”
Still the students say they have been impressed by nationwide efforts to help the Gulf Coast. And even though they missed a few weeks of school, they say they’ve had no problem fitting into the Darlington community.
“Everyone’s been so nice to us,” Millard said. “We’ve just kind of jumped in and not looked back.”
The group of New Orleans and Pascagoula natives has also helped other students understand the magnitude of the storm’s effect.
Led by school Operations Manager Doug Braden, about 30 students took a recent weekend trip Pascagoula to help in the cleanup effort, and more trips are in the works, Braden said.
“I think it really opened their eyes,” Johana said. “It’s hard to understand just how bad the damage is until you see it.”
After Hurricane Katrina had swept through her home in Pascagoula, Miss., Johana Bucci, a boarding student at Darlington Upper School, was able to watch the storm make landfall from a distance.
Her parents, both doctors at a local hospital, got a closer view of the storm and had some shocking news for Johana when they managed to contact her.
“I was talking to my mom, and I kept asking what was left of the house,” Johana said. “She kept saying it was gone, but it just didn’t register. I couldn’t believe it was happening.”
While Katrina left Johana without a home, it also left thousands of students without a school, and a small cadre of Gulf Coast teenagers have found their way to Darlington, which has adopted them while their home schools languish in the post-Katrina quagmire.
Johana said she and another student from Pascagoula, Julia Watt, were anointed as the New Orleans students’ unofficial tour guides as they could easily understand the personal upheaval the displaced students were experiencing.
“I think we all can understand where we’re coming from,” Johana said. “Talking with them is a way to ventilate, to get the stress out.”
Caroline Frilot, 17, certainly can commiserate with Johana, as her family home was flooded by several feet of water, destroying her baby pictures, furniture and other valuables.
“We didn’t really expect it to hit us, so we didn’t prepare the home,” she said.
With her private school in the city closed at least until January, Caroline tried attending school in Shreveport, La., but discovered Darlington while searching for boarding schools on the Internet.
“I’ve never been to a new school before, so it’s been tough,” she said. “But everyone has been very welcoming and sweet. Probably the hardest part is that all your friends from home are spread out all over the place.”
A classmate of Caroline’s at the New Orleans school, Millard Morrison, 17, said he, too, was expecting the hurricane to miss New Orleans. The Saturday before the storm, he woke up, got his breakfast and enraged his mother when he casually turned off the weather channel.
“She told me then that we were going to have to leave, and at first I was like, ‘Wait, I’ve got plans this weekend,’” he laughed. “I never thought we’d have to evacuate.”
Unlike Caroline, Millard didn’t have to do any searching for Darlington, as several generations of men in his family attended the school.
“It was almost like the hurricane finally gave them a reason to send me here,” he said.
He has been joined at Darlington by his friend Will Weston, whose Metairie Park Country Day School is also closed until the winter. Together the pair made a trip back home the weekend after Labor Day to help sift through the damage at their houses. What they saw shocked them, they said.
“It was unbelievable,” Will said. “It looked like the city had turned into a third-world country.”
“I still can’t believe it,” Millard said. “It’s like the whole place is cut off from the rest of the world.”
Still the students say they have been impressed by nationwide efforts to help the Gulf Coast. And even though they missed a few weeks of school, they say they’ve had no problem fitting into the Darlington community.
“Everyone’s been so nice to us,” Millard said. “We’ve just kind of jumped in and not looked back.”
The group of New Orleans and Pascagoula natives has also helped other students understand the magnitude of the storm’s effect.
Led by school Operations Manager Doug Braden, about 30 students took a recent weekend trip Pascagoula to help in the cleanup effort, and more trips are in the works, Braden said.
“I think it really opened their eyes,” Johana said. “It’s hard to understand just how bad the damage is until you see it.”
