This article was originally published on Sept. 8, 2005. Read the rest of the Reveille’s Remembering Katrina special here.

At the end of the day, it’s pure physical and mental exhaustion for Gabriela Sandoval, business administration senior from the University of New Orleans. She just enrolled at LSU after Hurricane Katrina submerged her campus and her apartment.

Sandoval said she battled to keep her mind from wondering off a discussion in her geology class, as she tried to shake thoughts of lost belongings and her flooded apartment. To top it off, she then had to endure the journey back to Geismar, La., the nearest place she could find an apartment.

“It’s really hard to focus,” she said. “At the beginning I was really excited, and now I am like: should I quit and just wait to finish up next semester at home?”

Sandoval is one of many new and returning students and faculty, both struggling to put together the pieces Katrina left behind, while having to press forward with the academic agenda at hand — a constant cycle of classes, homework, studies and research — and for professors, preparing lectures and revising syllabi.

“There is nobody to whom life is the way it was 10 days ago,” said Phyllis Lefeaux, LSU clinical social worker with Mental Health Services, as she and other staff wrapped up the day at the Student Union. They are holding a special “Coping with Katrina,” service to council students.

“How hard it is to focus depends on what you’ve been through and what you expect to go through during the semester,” Lefeaux said.

For Sandoval, New Orleans was her temporary home. She left Honduras to attend college in the city. Brandon Watson, biology freshman from Dillard University, said he turned down other college offers to stay in the city he grew up in and loved dearly.

“That was just two adjustments to make in a matter of one month,” Watson said. “It was such a quick change because I was really enjoying Dillard, but somehow I’m going to have to make out and manage here.”

Students housed in LeJeune and Beauregard halls in the Pentagon have already begun to reconnect and form support groups allied along the lines of their devastated colleges.

Bronwyn LeBlanc, UNO chemistry freshman, echoed Watson’s sentiments. She too recalled just settling in and making friends the Friday New Orleanians were asked to evacuate the campus. And now they are left to start over again.

“I was a freshman for five days, and it was a good five days,” LeBlanc said. “Now I’m sitting in trig class here. I was so tired, and I was just trying to make it through the day.”

Now that she found some other displaced UNO freshmen on campus, LeBlanc said she knows she’s not alone.

At a bench in the Pentagon near LeBlanc, Terrica Hamilton, Itohan Osemwenkhae and Naudia Falconer, who became friends while on UNO’s track team, evacuated to Baton Rouge as a group and decided to enroll at LSU together. Sticking together, they said, is what is allowing them to deal with their circumstances.

“I feel displaced,” said Hamilton, who is an early childhood education sophomore. “I feel like I don’t belong here. We get these stares, these pity smiles. I feel as though we’ve been dealt a shitty hand, so we just have to play it.”

Katrina’s effects are widespread, Lefeaux said, because for new students, it’s the thought of losing their belongings or schools and for others their homes or enjoyment during their free time.

“Some students don’t know what they have lost, so there’s uncertainty.” Lefeaux said. “For some students the population in their dorms has increased tenfold over night.”

“All of a sudden, they’re distracted. They’re not getting a lot of sleep. Maybe its the people across the hall whose family has moved in, or for those off campus, it’s taking even more time with the increased traffic.”

Lefeaux said the Mental Health and Wellness staff will continue the special services in the Union throughout the week. They expect to see an increase in students next week who are looking for a forum to talk or vent, after they’ve learned their way around the campus.

Neil Mathews, vice chancellor for Student Life and Academic Services, said the extended services at the Union and the residence halls can serve as a way for students to learn how to focus on classes amid all the distractions. Mathews said Drayton Vincent, director of Mental Services, has been on duty since the storm hit.

“They’re an outstanding group of professionals who’ve been handling the services well,” Mathews said.

For now, Lefeaux said, all students can do is try to get life back to normal as best as they can, starting with simple routines like sleeping, eating and exercising.

“We all had memories that are now nothing but memories,” Lefeaux said. “The way we make a statement … the way we pick up our mental health, is to continue with our lives.