After the Flood

Whenever a natural disaster strikes, what ensues is usually a horrific path of devastation, destruction and sorrow. Afterwards, stories move like the thin line of a pencil playing connect-the-dots, sliding in and out and connecting people across America through tragedy, forming a central picture of a unified, grieving population.

For some, these connections bring the tragedy closer to home. For others, it all happens there.

For Susan Marschall, a senior back and tri-captain for the Boston University women's soccer team, home is in Louisiana, where America met Hurricane Katrina face-to-face.

Marschall's home in Baton Rouge, La. rests about 80 miles outside New Orleans, the city that endured the brunt of Hurricane Katrina's apocalyptic forces of wind and water.

Being about an hour and 15 minutes away - Marschall's driving time - from the site of the most devastation, Marschall's house was safe compared to those of New Orleans' residents.

Her parents' house lost power, but suffered no flood damage or damage to any property. Her sister's house lost electricity for almost a week and her great aunt had to be evacuated from New Orleans and ended up settling with her parents.

Although the damage from Katrina wasn't overly serious for Marschall's family, the anticipation and the chance something could happen was. For days, Susan couldn't reach her parents - her family's phone was out and her cell phone, which uses a Louisiana-based service, also wouldn't work.

"I didn't think anything this bad would happen at first," Marschall said. "I wasn't too nervous, but then I started to get [nervous] a little bit." Marschall explained her early feelings of comfort came from her perceptions of normal hurricanes.

"I didn't really think anything of it," she said. "Hurricanes aren't scary to me, just thunderstorms with a lot of wind. I remembered in 1992, Hurricane Andrew. That was the biggest hurricane that I had lived through. We missed school for a week and had no power. It was more fun than a catastrophe."

Marschall said that with all the commotion of moving in and playing soccer, she initially failed to notice the severity of storm.

"We had just moved into the dorms so I wasn't on the computer or anything," Marschall said. "When I finally got the cable hooked up, I heard that the levees had burst and I was like 'What?' That's when I started watching, and didn't stop for a couple of days. Just watching every news channel I could.

"I couldn't get through for a couple of days," Marschall said. "Even now I still can't get through all the time. I have to call three or four times." Marschall's father, David, said that in light of the situation surrounding him in Louisiana, Susan was the least of his worries.

"She can take care of herself, and was in no danger," David Marschall said. "We often don't hear from her for a week or two anyways."

Coach Nancy Feldman agreed with the elder Marschall in the sense that Susan can handle herself. Feldman said that Marschall conducts herself off the field the same way she behaves on the field-with poise and control.

"There's not a lot of panic in Susan," Feldman said. "She's in control. She's very bright, doesn't waste a lot of energy on unnecessary emotion. She's not a kid that's going to break down."

While it wasn't necessarily a cakewalk, it wasn't too difficult to channel out the distractions that come with an event like this, Marschall said.

"It was challenging in a way," Marschall said. "It's hard to be focused on it because you are so far removed, but at the same time, it is a big deal. But when I get on the practice field, everything goes out of my mind but soccer."

Feldman spoke to Marschall privately during the incident to see how she was doing and to inquire about any friends or family who lived in the area.

She said she wasn't surprised about Marschall's conduct regarding the news of the hurricane and left the meeting feeling that Marschall was fine.

"She's pretty strong," Feldman said. "I'm not surprised with how she handled the news. That's just how she deals with things."

Feldman wasn't the only one who reached out to Marschall. Assistant coach Jennifer Goff phoned Marschall at 7:15 one rainy morning, waking up the senior tri-captain to ask about the status of her family.

"I thought it was about canceling practice," Marschall said. Marschall's teammates and their parents also extended their concern for her and her relatives.

"People were concerned," Marschall said. "Every person I ran into asked me how my family was doing. After [an August 26 preseason] game against BC, all the parents asked me how they were."

Luckily, her family was fine, thanks to a plan already in place well before the storm struck.

"Initially, we wanted to make sure that, if the storm continued on a path toward New Orleans and the smart thing was to evacuate, my 80-something-year-old aunt knew she could come to Baton Rouge," said David Marschall. "These evacuations are necessary every few years, and, in fact, my aunt came to Baton Rouge last September during a storm that came near New Orleans."

David said he didn't expect the storm to be catastrophic where he and his family live and since there are no large trees next to his house and no chance of flooding, he knew his house would remain relatively unharmed.

The only danger, he said, lay in the fact they had no power.

"Being without power in Louisiana in September is not just miserable, it's dangerous," he said, citing concerns over mosquitoes' ability to breed and transport the West Nile Virus.

In addition to the mosquitoes, a lot more has changed in Marschall's hometown since Hurricane Katrina roared through.

"Since the hurricane, there is a new 'normal' in Baton Rouge," said David Marschall. "We have become Louisiana's largest city. We went from 350,000 to 600,000 in a few days. There is gridlock at many intersections as New Orleans people struggle in a new city. There have been rumors of increased crime, desperate people wandering the streets."

But it's not just Baton Rouge and the other towns and cities of Louisiana that were affected. The demolition done by Katrina has had far-reaching effects across the nation.

"I was talking with [senior back] Brittany MacDonald before practice one day, and we were talking about ... gas prices, the economy and how the whole country could go into a depression," Susan Marschall said. "It was so depressing."

With such devastating consequences resulting from the Category 4 storm, people from all over, connected by stories and mutual feelings of compassion, have volunteered to help.

"Most everybody who can has been a volunteer somewhere in town for some period of time," said David Marschall, whose wife Susan volunteered at a pet shelter set up at Louisiana State University.

"Like everybody else, we collected donations immediately after," Feldman said of her team's contributions (BU has implemented a Katrina donation program at all home games). "Those people are in our thoughts and prayers. Every day you think about how difficult it is down there. It's not everyone just focusing on Susan, but I think that does bring it closer to home."