Leaving Home Without Looking Back

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

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."

She says she can't forgive a state that would let conditions get to what they were like in the convention center: the overflowing restrooms, the trash-strewn sidewalks, the dead body in the street.

"It's inhuman," Angelique said, "to do these kinds of things to somebody. What gives you the right? What gives you the right to say that my life isn't valuable?"

Derek and Angelique say the most maddening thing was that there was no way to sugarcoat it for the kids.

"There was no NC-17 ratings, no PG ratings, no Disney. It was no Disney," Derek said. "This was straight Stephen King,"

Ten-year-old Justin, however, is resilient.

When Smith met him at the convention center, he was lethargic and hot.

"I passed out yesterday," he told Smith then. "From the heat."

But now, he did cartwheels for the camera.

Asked what he'd remember about the convention center, Justin answered, "I'm gonna remember my friends."

"So even though the convention center was kind of a bad experience, are you over it?" Smith wanted to know.

"I'm still holding like a little teeny bit of a grudge," Justin said.

Low on money and with no means of transportation, the Levys still aren't sure where they'll go or when, but they are sure things will only get better the sooner they get away.

"Once I know that I'm out of Louisiana completely, I'm gonna kiss the ground," Angelique said.