Loyola University • New Orleans • Volume 94 • Issue 1 • August 21, 2015
THE MAROON FOR A GREATER LOYOLA
Ten years ago, on Aug. 28, 2005, Mayor C. Ray Nagin called for a mandatory evacuation of the city of New Orleans, an order that sent the Loyola community packing.
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Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans the following day, Aug. 29. After that day, Loyola was closed for the entire fall semester, and students, along with the rest of the city, were scattered across the country. Kaydee Nenninger, A’06, remembers the time well.
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By Kristen Stewart and Lauren Saizan
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NAASHA DOTIWALA/ The Maroon
girl,” Nenninger said. While Loyola was shut down for the fall 2005 semester, University President the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J. travelled to different cities where the Loyola community was stationed in Her initial plan was to ride out the midst of the storm. One of his the storm with her brother, who was visits brought him to Loyola Unialso attending Loyola at the time, versity Chicago, where he addressed and their mother. Once her moth- students, faculty, staff and alumni er insisted that the group of them who had taken refuge in the area. evacuate, her first destination was to In that speech, Wildes spoke to Houston, Texas. Normally a six-hour the “resurrection of Loyola.” trip, it took 16 hours for Nenninger “I want to go back and make it as she was one of the thousands of better than it was,” Wildes said. people trying to escape New OrleOn Aug. 17, 2015, Wildes gave a ans and Loyola University. similar speech at the 2015 Facul“We tried to enroll at LSU, but it ty and Staff Convocation, but this was full, so we time, it was 10 headed back “The smell of death was years later. to Tampa, our “New Orleh o m e t o w n , still present in the air and ans is a resilwhere we all en- will probably stay with me ient city. It has rolled at the Uninot returned to versity of South- forever.” what it was beern Florida,” fore Katrina; it Nenninger said. — Kaydee Nenninger, A’06 has become bet“I remember ter,” Wildes said. sobbing in the car ride back to Flor- “This is what Loyola strives for.” ida because I felt so guilty leaving.” Resilience is something that NenLike Nenninger, when the Loyola ninger felt in the aftermath of Hurcommunity realized that the univer- ricane Katrina, saying that Katrina sity would not be in session for the has strengthened her love for the fall of that year, they found them- city and her experience at Loyola. selves displaced from their homes “Katrina taught me so much and their university. It wasn’t until about the human condition. What later that year that many were able stays with me is the people, our to return to the world they had left community, the resilient nature of so abruptly. New Orleanians. I am so very proud “The smell of death was still pres- to call this city my home,” Nenent in the air and will probably stay ninger said. with me forever. The lower level At the convocation, Rector of of my apartment had completely the New Orleans Jesuit Community flooded. Cleaning out my apart- Francis W. “Bill” Huete, S.J. spoke of ment with my mother was probably how we’re always living out of our one of the most emotionally dis- present viewpoint, and back then turbing and physically taxing things it was difficult to envision where I have ever done. I had to throw out Loyola would be in the future. so many things that meant so much “But here we are,” Huete said. to me that were completely ruined “Ten years later.” by the flood waters, such as high school yearbooks, pictures and journals I had kept since I was a young
knstewar@loyno.edu lesaizan@loyno.edu @kstewart818 @Lauren_Maroon
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