Zipporah Smith

As a lifelong resident of New Orleans, Zipporah Smith has “ridden out” many storms, so when reports of Hurricane Katrina brewing in the Gulf began hitting the airwaves in late August of 2005, Smith’s first reaction was to stay put. On August 27, however, the hurricane reached Category 3 intensity. By the next morning, it had nearly doubled in size and was barreling toward the vulnerable coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

That day, Smith loaded her three youngest children, their grandmother and a few belongings into her car and fled Jefferson Parish, bound for a relative’s home in Baton Rouge. By then, a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans had been ordered, so Smith and her family were among the deluge of evacuees — an estimated 1 million of them — desperately trying to escape the storm.

She and her precious cargo made it to the Bonnet Carré Spillway headed out of New Orleans before traffic came to a complete standstill. Stranded in their car, they waited and prayed, as the rain began to fall and the waters of the spillway below crept closer to the bridge.

After a frightening eight hours on the bridge, rescuers arrived in buses, and the family was transported to Baton Rouge where they and 18 family members rode out the storm together. After losing electricity, the family had no means of accessing news about the hurricane’s impact on their beloved home town. Worse yet, they knew nothing of the fates of other loved ones, including Smith’s own mother and oldest child, who had stayed behind in New Orleans to wait for another family member before trying to evacuate.

When it was safe to venture out, Smith made her way to a local store where she finally learned about the levee breaches in New Orleans, the devastation, tragic loss of life and the chaos still taking place. “For an entire week, I didn’t know if my mother and daughter were alive,” she remembered. “It was terrible.”

Houston Reaches Out

Meanwhile, Houston had begun mounting one of the largest outreach efforts in the city’s history. Volunteers, businesses, organizations and city officials rallied to provide the evacuees with shelter, food, clothing, medical care and family reunification assistance.

With her home in New Orleans destroyed and her city in turmoil, Smith knew that going back in the near future was not possible. She and her children moved to a shelter in Baton Rouge and she finally made contact with her mother and daughter, who had also escaped the storm and been taken to the Houston Astrodome. In Houston, her mother was being helped by members of Sagemont Church, Tracy and Eddie Cox and Trace Griesel. One of them offered to drive to the shelter in Baton Rouge to bring Smith and her children to Houston.

“Mrs. Griesel didn’t know us from Adam,” Smith said. “But she didn’t hesitate to come and get me and my kids and take us to Houston so our family could be together. I was amazed by that.”

Sagemont’s congregation continued their support and assisted the family in rebuilding their lives. They donated a car and soon Smith was able to locate an apartment and find employment.

DePelchin’s Contribution

Beginning with the arrival of the first evacuees to Houston, DePelchin Children’s Center has worked diligently to help thousands of children and their families recover from the trauma caused by Hurricane Katrina, as well as Hurricane Rita, which followed just three weeks later. DePelchin clinicians were among the first responders to provide trauma counseling at shelters throughout Greater Houston, and the agency’s role in this effort is ongoing.

Last year, DePelchin received a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to provide therapeutic services for children evacuated during hurricanes Katrina and Rita. As part of the grant, Dr. Betty Pfefferbaum, director of the Terrorism and Disaster Center in Oklahoma

City, trained DePelchin clinicians to teach non-mental health professionals to recognize trauma symptoms in children. Utilizing this curriculum, DePelchin clinicians have conducted workshops for hundreds of teachers and administrators in Greater Houston. Clinicians also visit targeted Houston schools to personally screen students for trauma symptoms, and provide needed services to them and their families.

“Hurricanes Katrina and Rita left in their wake a large influx of traumatized evacuees in the Houston area,” said Curtis C. Mooney, Ph.D., president and CEO of DePelchin Children’s Center. “With this grant, DePelchin has been able to meet the ongoing mental health needs of children and families affected by these storms as well as future hurricanes.

Lives Changed

Smith and her children, now ages 5, 6 and 8, are among the many who have benefited from DePelchin’s services, which Smith learned of while visiting a hurricane recovery Web site. Nikki Saladino, a DePelchin clinician, works with the Smiths, providing weekly home-based services to help the children overcome their trauma-related symptoms, including behavioral problems and adjustment issues. Services include play therapy, family counseling and parenting classes.

“Zipporah is a determined young woman, a hard worker and a good mother,” said Saladino. “Her resilience and willingness to seek and accept help when she needs it have allowed her and her children to begin healing from the trauma of the past and build a life here in Houston.”

Smith, whose past jobs included working in New Orleans’ fast food industry, now works full-time as a security officer at one of Houston’s largest hospitals. When her schedule permits, she takes classes at Houston Community College and hopes to pursue a career in child psychology or criminal justice. She is also the grateful owner of a new home, built by Habitat for Humanity, and made affordable by down-payment assistance from a City of Houston program.

Many of Smith’s extended family members, once displaced by Katrina to cities across the nation, have returned to their native New Orleans. Smith, on the other hand, plans to stay in Houston permanently. She remembers with fondness the day Houston Mayor Bill White presented her with the keys to her new house.

“Houston has been very good to me,” she says. “I’m so grateful to all my angels who’ve helped me along the way. Thanks to them, my family has stability and a real home.”