Adam Davis was only 12 when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. He had never had to evacuate the city because of a storm.
His grandparents told him they were going away for a while but never explained why. So he packed his Nintendo Game Boy, helped board up windows and headed to a hotel 10 minutes away with his extended family.
That’s when the chaos began.
"We lost power," Davis said. "There were fights breaking out in different parts of the hotel. We heard people running up and down the halls and banging on doors. There was no TV. We're just looking out the window and we see the water pouring in everywhere."
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One night, blaring alarms jolted the family awake. Unsure what was happening, they grabbed their luggage and fled down flights of stairs in darkness.
They ran to their car through ankle-deep floodwater. The family felt safer spending the night in their vehicle than risking another trek back to the hotel.
After a restless night, they awoke to even higher water levels. To survive, they had no choice but to wade back toward the hotel through waist-deep water.
“We didn’t know what we were stepping on,” Davis said. “I remember seeing a backup generator or something; I’m not sure but I remember seeing wires. I kept thinking ‘Oh my God, please don’t let us get electrocuted.’”
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He helped his grandmother through the water while his younger brother clung to their mother.
“My mom was walking, then she suddenly stopped and grabbed her abdomen,” Davis said. “She didn’t tell us, but I found out later that she had been bitten by some kind of snake. We couldn’t identify it because it was hidden in the water, but she got an infection.”
The days blurred together until the National Guard arrived. The family was transferred to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, where they received blankets and pre-packaged meals. Huddled on the floor, Davis watched devastated evacuees around him.
“People were getting agitated,” Davis said. “I remember people getting on a golf cart and driving it around the convention center, just doing reckless stuff. They ended up hitting a wall, almost causing it to cave in.”
When his aunt and uncle from Baton Rouge came to their rescue, he felt relieved. The relatives housed Davis, his brother, mother and grandparents before they moved to Lafayette, where Davis still lives today. His grandparents have since died.
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Before Katrina, Davis was homeschooled but struggled to keep up with his education. After moving to Lafayette, he began working toward his high school equivalency diploma.
He passed in 2016 and earned an associate’s degree from South Louisiana Community College and later a bachelor’s in business management at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He now works as a senior workforce student adviser at SoLaCC.
He loves New Orleans but he plans to stay in Lafayette.
“That’s what I love about Lafayette — it’s so family-oriented,” Davis said. “I just feel a sense of peace when I’m here. I feel like I’m safe and like I’m in a better place. I sometimes worry about the kind of person I’d be if I wasn’t in this environment.”