Many parents buy Baton Rouge property to allow their children an independent college lifestyle, but in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, parents are living with their children while searching for homes of their own.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the Baton Rouge metropolitan population to be 412,447 in 2003, but with the recent rush of people seeking shelter from the storm and its aftermath, numbers are soaring.
“We are completely full,” said Beau Brown, assistant manager of University Commons Apartments. “Most of the housing was taken up Tuesday. We’ve had 500 to 800 calls a day since then.”
Brown said residents from the New Orleans area make up about 85 percent of his clientele, and occupancy has almost doubled to 1,000 residents with the new influx of families.
Susan Abadie, a New Orleans evacuee, is staying in her daughter Christen’s apartment in the Commons. Abadie, her son, husband and the family’s two dogs sleep lined up on Christen’s living room floor. Abadie said their Metairie home may have flood and wind damage, but it could be rebuilt.
Abadie and her family will live with her husband’s brother, who quickly found a three-bedroom apartment in Baton Rouge several days after the hurricane hit. The Abadies plan to move in with their extended family some time in September.
Brown said he has called other property managers around Baton Rouge and in outlying cities, but those areas are also filling up quickly.
“Prairieville filled 80 units in three hours,” said Amie Hansel, a leasing consultant at University Commons. “Lafayette was filled by Thursday. Now we suggest that people go to Alexandria or out of state.”
Nancy Doerries, her husband and three children could not find a place to live in Baton Rouge, so they may stay with her brother in Lafayette.
“It’s impossible,” Doerries said. “There are no apartments, no houses. Baton Rouge is totally booked up.”
Doerries’ son, a high school junior, may attend Lafayette High School. Doerries said she would like her son to attend a Catholic high school in Baton Rouge, but there is nowhere to live. Doerries daughter, Molly, is in LSU Nursing School in New Orleans.
Molly Doerries said nursing school may be moved to Baton Rouge, and she would live with her aunt while attending school.
“My school’s down. It’s probably gone,” Molly Doerries said. “It is across the street from the Superdome.”
Nancy Doerries said she never dreamed a disaster like Hurricane Katrina would hit New Orleans.
“Friday night we were at a party,” Doerries said. “It wasn’t until Saturday that we started getting nervous.”
Abadie, a nursing student at Delgado Charity Nursing School in New Orleans, said her family and many others who evacuated from New Orleans were also unprepared for the quick development and ferocity of the hurricane.
“The severity of the flooding and winds — we’d never had a class five hurricane before,” Abadie said. “We basically have the clothes on our backs.”
Abadie said she and her family are unsure if their future will be in Baton Rouge, out-of-state, or back in New Orleans, once the city’s situation is stabilized.
Two New Orleans-based oil companies where Abadie’s husband works are currently relocated in Baton Rouge, but he may be transferred to Houston.
Susan Abadie has nine hours left until she completes nursing school, but her professional plans are also tentative. Abadie’s son, who went to Archbishop Rummel High School in New Orleans, may be starting his senior year in Baton Rouge this fall. Until Abadie’s husband is transferred or nursing school opens, the family waits.
While their future plans are in limbo, Abadie said the only thing she can do is comfort her children.
“I told my kids that life is more important, though the anticipation to go home is hard,” Abadie said.
  Contact Leslie Ziober at [email protected]