Katrina's cosmic curveball a fierce reminder

A week ago Saturday, Danny Thomas was handing out water bottles to freshmen who were moving in to dormitories at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Thomas, a Salt Lake native and graduate of Skyline High School, was set to begin his junior year. He was assisting freshmen and new students as part of Tulane's EMT service. Little did he know that later that week the campus would be evacuated in advance of the mother of all uninvited house guests, Hurricane Katrina.

For nearly a week, Thomas criss-crossed the Gulf Coast region. Initially, he went to Birmingham, Ala., with a buddy. Later in the week, he traveled to Jackson, Miss., to relieve Tulane EMTs who had been tending about 400 Tulane students evacuated to Jackson State University, which is about 200 miles north of New Orleans. Eventually, Thomas made his way back to Salt Lake City.

By week's end, Tulane University President Scott Cowen made what he described on the university's Web site as "an extremely difficult decision." Tulane University could not hold a fall semester on its campus.

About 100,000 college students in the New Orleans area were displaced by Katrina, according to the Associated Press. Thomas, along with some 8,000 other Tulane undergraduates, were advised to continue their studies elsewhere. Thomas will start his junior year at the University of Utah, uncertain if he will return to Tulane.

"I had a good time there. It's a really good school," Thomas said in an interview Sunday. "I don't want to abandon it."

Although the immediate concern of Gulf Coast schools was the safety of students, faculty and staff, many school administrators fear losing their students for good. The American Council on Education has asked schools taking displaced students not to charge them fall tuition if they have already paid it at their home institutions. For those who haven't paid, the schools have been asked to charge the same rates as they would have paid at their original schools and send the money to the closed campuses. The higher education group has also asked that displaced students be enrolled as visitors instead of transfer students, with the hope they will return to their home campuses. Most schools in the New Orleans area are expected to be closed until January.

Thomas says his reaction to television reports of the devastation in the Gulf Coast area has primarily been "shock." Because of widespread power outages in the region, he did not see much of the national news reports of the disaster until his return to Utah.

"It's kind of a lot to take in. You see so much of it. It's on every station all the time. It wears you out to see so much of it," he said.