This article was originally published on Sept. 6, 2005. Read the rest of the Reveille’s Remembering Katrina special here.

After students waved off their parents on move-in day, few thought they would be living with them again after only one week of freedom.
Hurricane Katrina’s devastation left many New Orleans residents homeless and stranded in multiple cities. The University is allowing students to house their families in residential halls to ease the strain on Baton Rouge housing.

Meggan Canale’s two-person dorm is now home to her family of four.

“It’s very cozy,” said Canale, marketing freshman and Destrahan native. “My mom and sister sleep on our futon, and my dad is sleeping on my roommate’s bed until she gets back.”

The Canale family left its hotel in St. Francisville on Wednesday, but Canale said she does not mind the company in her Evangeline room.

“It’s an inconvenience, but I appreciate them being there,” Canale said. “I don’t feel safe going to school when there are people on campus that don’t belong.”

John Canale, Meggan’s father, said he hopes to go home this week when the power returns but that the accommodations have been “wonderful.”

“All my life, I’ve dreamed of sleeping in a girl’s dorm,” John Canale joked. “Unfortunately, it came 30 or 40 years too late.”

Meggan’s father added that the University staff has been hospitable, citing a night when the Highland Cafeteria staff fixed the family a meal 20 minutes after the cafeteria closed.

But not all students were ready to have their parents living with them again.

“It has been draining and stressful,” said Rachel Spinner, sociology senior and Kenner native who is living with her mother in East Campus Apartments. “I know my mom doesn’t want to be there, but she can’t help being there.”

Spinner, unlike Canale, has been on her own longer and said she was not prepared to be living with her mom again.

“I haven’t lived with her since I was a senior in high school,” Spinner said.

Spinner said 10 people and her three cats stayed with her during the hurricane.

“The Tulane students who were with us went home,” she said. “My roommate’s mom is from Baton Rouge, but she and her dog stayed with us a few nights when her power went out.”

Residential life has been allowing families to stay, but they are trying to cut down on pets in the dorms and on-campus apartments.

According to a recent Department of Residential Life broadcast e-mail, pets staying in on-campus residences were supposed to be removed by Sept. 1 at 5 p.m.

The University recommended moving pets to a temporary kennel at John Parker Coliseum to assist the hurricane victims as much as possible.

Friends of residents are also staying in the dorms.

“I am housing my dad and my friend from UNO,” said Megan Hussey, biochemistry junior and Metairie native. “They both came on Thursday. It’s been weird having everyone in the room because I actually went to Louisiana School for Math, Science and Arts, so I haven’t lived at home since I was 15.”

The University offered other options for temporary housing this past week, inviting families staying on campus to stay in homes of University faculty and staff members.

At 9 a.m. in the Pentagon Service Building, families of students seeking housing can speak with volunteers who are trying to accommodate those who have been displaced.

Residential Life also helped refugee families relieve stress by throwing together a last-minute event, Family Day. Residential assistants and ambassadors set up a spacewalk for children, a free meal and massages for the families. The event was held in Acadian Hall and on the field next to it.