Two students struggle to get families out of
New Orleans
Ryan Tubongbanua / The Collegian
Aryan Bull, a business major, talks to his mother on the phone Thursday. Bull, from Oakland, has several relatives in New Orleans who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. |
By Elizabeth Leffall
The Collegian
While thousands of people are
presumed dead and many areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama remain
flooded after Monday’s hurricane hit more than 2,000 miles away,
two Fresno State students said the disaster hit too close to home.
Junior Aryan Bull has more than 50 family members in Louisiana who were
affected by the category five storm. Bull said he’s having a difficult
time coping with everything and never knew something so disastrous could
happen to his family.
“It’s hard for me to deal with right now, my family is really
important to me,” Bull said. “Every one of them needs help
right now.”
Many of Bull’s relatives lost their homes to flooding. “Their
houses were really damaged. We have almost 100 people to take care of
now.”
Bull said the good news is that family members recently found his great-grandmother
still in her house.
“We just got the call that they found her with some of my uncles.
It’s hard to believe she was in the house during the entire time,”
he said.
Bull is grateful to have found so many family members but said several
are still missing.
“Man, we don’t know where they’re at,” he said.
“All I know is that God protects everybody and if it’s their
time, it’s their time.”
Ryan Tubongbanua / The Collegian
Zakiyyah Abdul-Mateen is a native of New Orleans who came to Fresno State for its nursing program. She said her parents want to bring at least two family members in from New Orleans by next week. |
Zakiyyah Abdul-Mateen, in her first year at Fresno State said she is only
one of seven family members living in California.
“Everyone else in my family is back at home,” she said. The
home she is referring to is New Orleans.
Abdul-Mateen said she spent a lot of time yesterday morning excusing herself
from her classes as she took calls from cousins asking if she’d
heard from her aunt or other cousins.
“It’s been really hard, my family hasn’t been able to
talk to anyone in the city but we have been able to communicate by cell
phone by texting back and forth.”
Her cell phone, she said, has become her security. “It gives me
hope. Even though the messages are delayed a couple of hours, at least
we’re getting the message.”
Abdul-Mateen said the family has not heard from her aunt, Cynthia, since
she went to look for her children.
“The water started rising really fast in her house. My family back
there said that after she left to find my two cousins they never saw her
again. All we can do now is just pray.”
Abdul-Mateen also has a bittersweet story. Although her family is still
looking for two cousins and her aunt, she said she’s glad her uncle
survived the worst.
“He waited until the water was up to his chin before he left the
house,” she said. “Right now he’s living on the Broad
Bridge near the Superdome waiting for help. At least we know he’s
safe.”
She said even though the family is scattered, her family in California
is trying to fly as many relatives to Fresno and Oakland, where her parents
live, as soon as possible.
Her uncle and his pregnant wife are on the family’s list to come
over first.
“They need to come as soon as possible for the baby. I’m trying
to send for them to come live here in Fresno by next week. We just need
help with money because my family has lost everything,” Abdul-Mateen
said.
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