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Gustav brings family back

Former Katrina evacuees return in preparation for next big hurricane

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  • Tara Bozick •
  • Originally published August 30, 2008 at 11:35 p.m., updated August 30, 2008 at 11:35 p.m.

Willie Cobb Barnes saw that Hurricane Gustav was headed toward his hometown of New Orleans again.

His first thought was of heading back to Victoria for a visit, as the family lived in Victoria from 2005 to 2007 after evacuating from Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

“The first thing I said was, ‘I’m going back to my second home,’” Cobb Barnes said, who worked for Victoria’s parks and recreation department before moving back to New Orleans in the summer of 2007.

The family left New Orleans at 4 a.m. Saturday to drive to Victoria to evacuate early and beat the bumper-to-bumper traffic. They left most everything behind, but took their important papers and pet pit bull Kanye.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” wife and mom Delores Cobb Barnes said, who worries about the house the family is fixing up while renting another house. “Hopefully it’ll turn and go somewhere else and we can go back home.”

Daughters Danta Cobb, 19, and Danielle Cobb, 23, are coming back to visit friends, too. Residents may remember Danta as a Faith Academy volleyball star.

Delores just keeps praying and keeps faith in God that everything will be all right.

Another Katrina evacuee who still lives in Edna is keeping a close eye on the storm.

“It’s just devastating,” 71-year-old Margaret Alexander said when she saw that another hurricane could hit New Orleans.

Alexander rode with the Cobb Barnes family to evacuate three years ago and now lives in Edna with her daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons.

She and her family have been watching the hurricane news continually. Alexander said she is confident Edna won’t get hit, but still needs to wait and see.

“I’m just glad we’re not in that,” daughter Natalie Mason, a server, said about New Orleans and the path of Gustav.

She said she feels anger and grief for the people who returned to New Orleans. The city always had a chance of getting struck by a storm again, she said.

“What’s the Lord trying to tell us?” Mason asked.


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