Newark man shares memories of Hurricane Katrina

• Newark resident Steve Felker was living in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
• Today is the 10th anniversary of the storm hitting the city.

NEWARK – On Aug. 28, 2005, Steve Felker popped a tape into his VCR to record the news and the weather.

The Newark resident was living in a suburb of New Orleans at the time. Hearing reports that a strong hurricane was heading for the city, he decided to record the weather, thinking he would watch it after he returned to his apartment.

But Felker would never go home again. His apartment was one of many residences completely destroyed in the Category 5 storm, Hurricane Katrina.

The video he recorded — before the power went out — became part of history. Katrina, which hit New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005, was one of the costliest and most deadly hurricanes in the U.S., taking more than 1,200 lives.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the event, Felker shared some of his memories of the storm and its aftermath.

"When you have a challenging experience in your life and you get past it, you are happy you survived," he said. "But I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

A native of central Ohio, Felker moved to Louisiana in 2003. An employee of WFF Facilities services, he worked at Loyola University, where he managed 71 employees who worked as custodians and groundskeepers, maintained conference rooms, and did shipping and receiving.

In his role, he was part of the university's Hurricane Emergency Team, which required him to help prepare the campus for severe weather, ride out the storm and clean up any damage.

In the two years he was on campus, there had already been several tropical storms and some damage from Hurricane Ivan.

So when Hurricane Katrina was initially reported as a Category 3 storm, he wasn't overly concerned. He and his team helped move students' luggage and secured buildings on campus.

But when the storm changed to a Category 5, he was more alarmed. As the campus lost power and the rain started, he and his staff took shelter in one of the buildings. When they felt it was safe to look outside, they saw huge pieces of debris flying through the air.

"The wind had done things I would have never thought possible," he said.

The storm took 17 hours and then suddenly, it was over, he said.

"When it passed, it was like a switch flipped. There wasn't a sound," he said. "That's one of the things I'll remember most was the total, utter silence. It was like living on the moon."

Although they had no power or cellphone service, Felker and his team did what they could to make repairs.

"It looked like a bomb had gone off, but we didn't know about the floodwater until later," he said.

The floodwaters came in about 24 hours after the hurricane, slowly like flowing lava, he said. Some of his team members began getting word that their homes were destroyed.

Later, he learned that some of his employees, who didn't evacuate, had to be rescued from the flooding.

"A lot of people stayed behind to protect their homes. It was just terrible," he said. "Ninety-percent of my staff lost their homes, including myself."

Two days after the storm, the team was running out of water and fuel. Whey they saw a man with a truck drive by, he told them the road to leave campus was clear.

Felker and his team decided to leave and traveled in a convoy to Baton Rouge.

He and several co-workers continued on to Georgia to stay with Felker's sister. After several weeks, Felker was called back to Loyola to help the National Guard units who were living on campus and assisting with the recovery efforts.

New Orleans was under martial law, and Felker needed to carry a special letter with him to get into the city.

When he returned, he stopped by his apartment and found it had been completely flooded. Most of his possessions were damaged and covered in mold.

He was able to save a few personal items, but he abandoned the rest. After six weeks of sleeping in his office, he bought and restored a storm-damaged mobile home.

It took him about a month to track down his employees.

"I was very fortunate," he said. "Although 100 percent of my employees survived, a lot of them lost relatives."

Many of them decided not to return to New Orleans.

"My employees suffered a lot more then I did," he said. " About 40 of my staff members didn't come back. They had nothing to come back to."

Felker left New Orleans in 2007 to take a job in New Albany. He settled in Newark to be closer to his mother.

He's traveled to New Orleans twice in 2009 and 2012.

"(The recovery) was going very slowly," he said. "Even back in 2007, they said it would take 10 to 12 years. I don't think some people have ever recovered."

While he was experiencing it, the hurricane brought forth a huge range of emotions, from fear and frustration to sadness.

But now that he's had 10 years to think about it, Felker knows he'll ever forget the experience.

He has maintained a large collection of photos and articles from the event.

"Everyone had a different story, everybody had a different struggle," he said. "It was a 17-hour event, but its impact is still lasting today. People are still dealing with it."

ajeffries@newarkadvocate.com

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Twitter: @amsjeffries