Katrina Precipitates Early Arrival of New Faculty Member
Dr. Johnson wasn’t scheduled to be here until Jan. 1, 2006, arriving from Tulane University, but Hurricane Katrina altered his plans. Instead of a planned move to Fort Worth with his equipment, research, furniture and personal belongings, Dr. Johnson fled New Orleans after riding out the storm in a hotel just outside of the city.
“I feel I’m more fortunate than most people, really,” Dr. Johnson said. “Things worked out for me.”
He made it through the storm and traveled to Fort Worth, where he was able to step into a new job and continue his work. When he made a whirlwind return to New Orleans last week, he even found his house intact, with only minor damage to his property.
“I’m really thankful,” he said.
On the Friday and Saturday before Hurricane Katrina arrived in New Orleans, Dr. Johnson was working in his lab at Tulane. He was unaware of the impending hurricane, focused on wrapping up as much research as possible before he was scheduled to move to Texas.
“You just don’t think about these things when you work in the lab until late,” he said.
A cousin called Dr. Johnson on Friday evening to tell him that a Category 5 hurricane was bearing down on New Orleans and that he should leave. Since Dr. Johnson’s house was located right next to Lake Pontchatrain, he had responded to previous hurricanes by evacuating or seeking refuge with the Tulane Health Sciences Center’s sturdy buildings or in a hotel in downtown New Orleans, and that was the plan for this one. So Dr. Johnson made his reservations for Sunday night and began moving books and papers in his laboratory, office and home to the highest points possible, preparing for what became a far more devastating flood than he had imagined.
When Dr. Johnson went to claim his room Sunday evening, he was turned away. Evacuation orders issued by the mayor of New Orleans left him without a place to stay. As he traveled outside of the city, going from one hotel to another looking for a vacant room in vain, Dr. Johnson finally came upon the first hotel that he had stayed in when he first came to New Orleans. There were no rooms available also, but a total stranger stepped in and offered Dr. Johnson his room. It was there where Dr. Johnson rode out the winds and water of Hurricane Katrina.
Because of the way that the hotel was situated, it weathered the storm, but Dr. Johnson described the scene as chaotic, with the sound of breaking glass all around and debris being thrown against the building. Dr. Johnson put the chairs and one of the beds up against the windows in his hotel room as the hurricane made its way through.
“By 5 o’clock in the evening, it was beautiful and calm outside with just a light, detectable breeze, and we came out to view the flooded streets and buildings,” he said. “It was just amazing.”
Because of electrical and water damage, the hotel had all occupants leave on Tuesday, which was when Dr. Johnson began making his way to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. But what he saw in and around New Orleans shocked him.
“It was a devastating scene,” Dr. Johnson said. “It was just like a sea.”
Since his arrival, Dr. Johnson has dealt with the normal challenges of adjusting to a new job, a new city and a new way of life.
Added to that normal period of adjustment is the shock of such an abrupt departure and the loss of almost 20 years of research work, since his specimens, normally stored at sub-zero temperatures in his lab at Tulane, thawed while utilities were down in New Orleans.
“Our research will suffer,” Dr. Johnson said.
Although many papers and research that he thought had been lost to the floodwaters were untouched, the specimens lost at Tulane will still slow the progress of his cancer research. Still Dr. Johnson considers himself lucky, and plans to rebuild what has been lost.
“I am grateful to the people of Texas,” he said. “They have just welcomed people with open arms.”