Amanda Blattner attempted to salvage old memories in her hurricane-ravaged New Orleans apartment during her fall break.
Under the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, photo albums became sealed books of tye-dyed swirls and a scrapbook became a multicolored pile of mush on the floor.
"That's the thing that made me the saddest I think," she said. "The memories were just erased."
Since evacuating her off-campus home at the end of August, the Tulane University junior -- who is taking classes at Penn this semester -- did not return to New Orleans until Monday.
"I just wanted to see things for myself," Blattner said. "I had been reading articles in different newspapers and reading things online, but ... I didn't know what to believe."
Blattner and her father flew to New Orleans and maneuvered a rental car around cleanup crews, cops and garbage piles to get to her apartment. Armed with surgical masks, rubber boots and rubber gloves, they prepared for the worst.
They weren't prepared, however, for the smell.
"It was just like you open the door and you get this waft of the most nastiest smell, even through the masks," she said. "If we had taken off the masks I think I would have vomited."
Circles of black mold decorated the apartment's walls and a filmy residue covered everything within three feet of the floor. In Blattner's room, books and shelves were lying in front of a bookshelf, blown out of their wooden frame.
"It was unreal," she said. "I didn't even recognize some of the things in my room."
Just a few blocks away on the other side of the campus, Tulane senior Arielle Solowiejczyk found her own off-campus home relatively damage-free.
Expecting worse, she said, "It was a relief to know that the campus wasn't really damaged as badly as people thought it would have been."
Signs adorned campus shops announcing re-opening dates and offering words of encouragement. One pizza place's sign read, "Help us rebuild New Orleans one pizza at a time," she said.
For Solowiejczyk, the trip to New Orleans confirmed her excitement about returning to Tulane when it re-opens in January. But for Blattner, the trip raised more questions about whether she would return to Tulane for the spring, or spend the semester abroad in Australia.
"I don't want to go back there if it's unhealthy or unsafe for me to be breathing the air, but I don't want to spend junior year without my friends," Blattner said. "So it's a tough decision to make."
Both agreed, however, that the spring semester would be special for returning students.
"Everyone that's going to be there really is going to want to be there and is going to love Tulane and love New Orleans and want to see it come back the way it was," Solowiejczyk said.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.
