Anthony, 15 years old, was five during Hurricane Katrina. He stayed in the city with his family for most of the storm. Here, Anthony talks about the storm and his school today. It’s been edited for length and clarity.

My earliest memory is when I was helping my great grandmother around the house when she was cooking. Since she was old and stuff she couldn’t do much. So, I just helped her. I liked to see a smile on her face.

[My neighborhood back then was] dangerous. Very dangerous. Killings and all. Killings and stealings. Stuff like that.

When Katrina was happening, we was just staying inside and stuff. We just stayed inside and we was just sitting there until the storm stopped. We was a little bit hungry because we was running out of food. It was me, my two sisters, my brother, my mom, my dad, my grandmother and my two uncles — my three uncles. I was kinda scared because there was a lot of noise and all that. So, I just went to sleep so it can stay off my mind.

I know what the water was like. At my age, it was above me. It was at least like five feet high. I could swim a little but not all that good.

We was in an apartment complex. There was some man around. I didn’t really know him. That was my first time seeing him. He came with some food or whatever and like a day later he brung us up to roof. He called a helicopter. They had these baskets they had put us in. They brung us up and put us in the helicopter.

I thought it was fun because I could kinda see some of New Orleans but it was kinda bad to see how it was. And all the water was right there. I was scared at first.

The Red Cross brought us to Texas, I think Houston. They had a shelter out there and after that my mother got in touch with my other grandmother on her side of the family and she came and got us from the shelter.

Then we went to my grandmother’s house in Dallas. It was fun. I made new friends out there. It was fun. We moved a couple of times. We was in Dallas. Then we went to Nebraska. We stayed out there for like a year. Went back to Dallas and stayed out there for like three years and then came back.

I ain’t really remember a lot of stuff [from when I lived in New Orleans before]. So, I walked around with my mother and she’d tell me “Remember this school? Remember that?” And that’s when it will all come back to me. I remember the little school on Claiborne. [I remember] where my great grandma used to stay at. She showed me my old house.

When I came back to New Orleans I was already taught the things I knew in Dallas, so some of the school work was easy. And we had to wear uniforms and all that. And the teachers — they was fussing. They like to yell. In Dallas, the teacher didn’t really have to yell. In New Orleans, I feel like [the schools are] behind.

I don’t really try to think about Katrina. When I see certain things, it just comes back to me and I try to forget it. If I see a certain building that I remember it just comes back to me. My great grandmother’s house, when I see her old house it just comes back to me and makes me remember some things, what I used to do for her.

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