I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005

As the stars emerge, Barry looks out, wondering whether one of them is Beta Draconis, Akivo’s secret star, and a real star in the solar system that Barry had discovered in an astronomy book. Spotting one of the brightest stars, Barry decides to call it Akivo’s, pointing it out to Cruz. Barry feels as if the night sky is a “glittering blanket to protect them” from the ruins around them (76).

Every so often, boats float by them and Barry cries out to them for help, although no one stops. Finally, one of the boats slows down, and Barry sees a young woman driving not a boat, but a motorized inflatable yellow raft. The woman introduces herself as Nell, getting off of the raft and wading over to Barry and Cruz in tall rubber boots. She calls Barry a “brave soul” and promises to get Barry and Cruz to safety. Nell gives Cruz and Barry water, and as Barry begins to say thank you, he releases a sob instead. He turns away from Nell, embarrassed, wondering why she called him brave when he feels like he cannot act brave.

Nell tells Barry that she will take them to the St. Claude Avenue bridge, where there are people stationed to help them. Barry imagines a rescue scene like the ones he has seen on television: full of police, firefighters, doctors, and nurses in white tents stocked with fresh supplies. As they float by in the direction of the bridge, other stranded people call out to them for help, and Nell tells each of them that she will be back for them. She turns to Barry, telling him that she has already picked up more than 30 people and that there are thousands more stranded throughout the Lower Nine.

As they reach the bridge, Barry’s vision of safe shelter shatters as he sees no flashing lights, police cars, or ambulances, but a series of other small boats, like Nell’s. Nearly 100 people are standing on the bridge in various states of disbelief and shock, and Barry worries about what will happen to him once Nell leaves him there.

Nell lets Barry off the raft at the middle part of the bridge, which is high enough that it remains unsubmerged. She tells Barry that someone here will help him as they are taking people to the Superdome, but Barry struggles to believe her, especially because he has Cruz with him and therefore, he cannot go into the Superdome. A man rushes over to Nell, begging her to take him in her boat to rescue his stranded grandmother, and Nell agrees. Before she leaves, Nell lifts Barry’s chin with her hand, looking into his eyes and telling him in a clear, unwavering voice that he is strong.

As he watches Nell float away, Barry hears her voice echo “You’re strong. You’re strong” in his mind until he realizes that it is his voice repeating it (85). As Barry thinks back over the past 24 hours and everything he has been through, he wonders if he can be both scared and strong at the same time. He looks up and sees his star, “Barry’s star,” and realizes that no matter how he feels he will continue onward. An hour passes, and suddenly Barry hears familiar voices calling his name. He turns to see his family rushing toward him, their arms enveloping him, and the four of them join together on the bridge in a tight hug.

A month later, Barry sits on a bench in Riverside Park while his parents watch Cleo play on the playground a few feet away. Barry looks down at his open sketchpad at his new drawing of Akivo, which he had just finished that morning. From his grandma’s house in Birmingham, Jay had called the Acclaim Comics offices and asked if he and Barry could have an extension to enter the contest. Acclaim representatives had not only agreed but had asked if they could meet Barry to hear his story of surviving Hurricane Katrina.

Four weeks after, Hurricane Katrina is still one of the biggest news stories in the country, and Barry is accustomed to everyone wanting to hear his and his family’s story of survival, always exclaiming how lucky the Tucker family is to have lived. Barry knows that his family is lucky to have been reunited unharmed, considering that there are still so many families that have been unable to find one another, and thousands are confirmed dead. Although unharmed physically, Barry struggles with nightmares and startles at the sound of the shower running. Still, Barry thinks that he is luckier than so many, like the tens of thousands of people trapped in the Superdome for days on end in the heat.

Barry explains that after reuniting, he and his family went to Lightning’s, staying with Dave for two days before getting a bus to Houston. After staying there for a week, Roddy received a call from the college in New York offering him a job teaching a class about New Orleans music. The whole family moved a week later to a fully furnished apartment, Cruz in tow. Roddy had been able to track down Abe and his grandma, now living in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Abe and Barry had spoken on the phone. During this conversation, Abe told Barry he could keep Cruz, and they talked about their old neighborhood. Barry hopes that he will see Abe again one day.

Barry’s parents join him on the bench, and Roddy looks at his new drawing of Akivo. Akivo now has a dog sidekick and a guardian angel who rides in a yellow rubber raft. Barry’s mother comments that Akivo looks like Barry, and he looks again, realizing that he does look like the superhero. He realizes that during his experience in the hurricane, he discovered latent powers of his own.

When it is time to go home, Barry picks up Cleo and hears her humming “Blueberry Hill,” which Roddy had sung “a million times” while the family was huddling on the roof waiting out the storm (94). Roddy had jumped into the water to go after Barry, but the current had prevented him from getting to his son. As the Tuckers walk down Broadway together, they discuss plans for the afternoon, marveling at the sheer number of activities they can do together in the city. Roddy points out that they have plenty of time, and Barry knows that they will not stay in New York forever, returning at some point in the future to New Orleans. Barry wonders when they will return, when their city will fully heal, knowing that “one day” is the answer.

In an afterword, author Lauren Tarshis writes about the historical event of Hurricane Katrina and explores lingering questions about its aftermath. She writes that experts had warned for years that the levees surrounding New Orleans would not hold during a major storm and that in August 2005, when Katrina made landfall, this proved true. In the first hours of the storm alone, nearly 1,000 people drowned, and countless others were stranded much like the fictional Tucker family. Others, nearly 50,000 people, were trapped in the Superdome, and it took five full days for help to arrive.

After the storm, questions lingered as to whether New Orleans would ever recover, as the extent of the damage became clear: Tens of thousands of residences and municipal buildings were destroyed, flood waters covering 80% of the city were filled with waste and chemicals, and the city’s residents scattered across the country. Although it took time, Tarshis writes that New Orleans did survive and rebuild, with 75% of inhabitants having returned.

Tarshis is careful to point out that despite New Orleans’s recovery, some of the poorest neighborhoods were the most devastated by the storms, and that much of the Lower Nine, where Barry and his family lived, remains abandoned. Only 19% of its residents have returned post-Katrina.

Tarshis closes this afterword by explaining that, while she has researched and written about numerous natural disasters throughout her career, none incited as much anger and sadness as Hurricane Katrina. She wonders why leaders did not do a better job protecting the city, putting in preventative measures that could have saved countless lives, and why help was so slow to arrive. She concludes by stating that while she can give Barry and his family a happy ending as a writer, she cannot answer these lingering questions.