Leaving Home Without Looking Back

Tracy Smith Visits A Disgusted Family Driven Out By Katrina

(CBS)  Members of the Levy family aren't waiting around to see if they can rebuild their lives in the place they used to call home, Jefferson Parish, a suburb that surrounds New Orleans.

They tell The Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith, after a return to their home, that they will move on.

Smith met the Levys last week.

They had boarded up their home and gone to a downtown hotel, but flooding from Hurricane Katrina forced them to the New Orleans Convention Center.

Jefferson Parish was opened on Monday for the first time since Katrina hit, so families could return home to survey the damage.

The Levys wanted to take a look, and since their car was also a victim of Katrina, Smith and her crew took them there.

For the Levys, it didn't much matter what shape they found their apartment in, Smith says. The damage had already been done.

"This time, I got stuck in a nightmare and couldn't wake up. And I'm still not able to wake up," Angelique Levy said.

After five days in the convention center, the Levys decided to leave their lives in Louisiana behind.

When Smith met Derek Levy last week, the National Guard had just arrived and he was upbeat, saying, "I feel like an American again. I thought my country had deserted me."

But now he needs a change, saying he doesn't feel safe in Jefferson Parish.

"This is your home, though," Smith said.

"It was my home," Derek responded.

As they got ready to leave their apartment, Angelique took nothing and didn't give the place a second look.

"It's Sodom and Gomorrah," she said. "He said, 'Don't look back.' And I don't plan on looking back."