5 years after Katrina, family reflects on storm and relocation to Macon

On Robert Ranson's wall at his Shirley Hills home hangs a piece of homemade wall art.

An amateur musician, he found the remains of his Les Paul model Gibson guitar, an old trumpet and a trombone five years ago in his destroyed New Orleans home in the weeks following Hurricane Katrina.

Rather than throw away the ruined instruments, Robert fused them together into a whimsical piece of modern art.

But perhaps the piece has a deeper meaning which Robert and his mother, Sonja, have imparted to people since leaving New Orleans: Just because something was ruined by the winds and flooding doesn't mean it has to stay ruined forever.

"You'd be surprised at how you no longer become attached to things," Sonja said.

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, Robert and Sonja now live just a few houses from each other in Macon. They cheered the New Orleans Saints when they won the Super Bowl earlier this year, and they still miss the unique cuisine for which the city is internationally renowned.

But the New Orleans chapter of their lives, which began in 1970, has long been over, closed emphatically by a storm that took more than 1,800 lives and remains the costliest natural disaster in American history.

"If there's anything I'd want people to take away from this is that you can keep up," Robert said. "You can keep going."

The oncoming storm

Storms in the Gulf of Mexico were nothing new. But for some reason, the weather reports Sonja was hearing from the National Hurricane Center in Florida struck a chord with her in the waning days of August 2005.

"It's the first time I ever left New Orleans because a storm was coming," said Sonja, 72, a retired teacher. "I listened to the radio and heard the man from the National Hurricane Center. I said, 'This time, I have to leave.' "

For Robert, 47, it was already a difficult and stressful time. His wife, Lori, died two months earlier from cancer, and he was left alone to take care of their daughter, Julia, then 6.

Like many New Orleans residents, at least the ones who listened to the warnings and evacuated, the Ransons thought they'd be away from their homes a couple of days. They didn't bother packing up most of their stuff. Sonja said she figured the city might be without water and power for a few days following the storm, but nothing too terrible. She even left her 9-year-old short-haired black cat, Ruby, behind with what should have been more than enough food.

As the Ransons and many others left New Orleans, they figured the storm to be a danger, but ultimately not much more than an inconvenience.

Then the levees broke.

Washed away

New Orleans natives had been warned for years that the city's levees might not survive a major storm. Robert noted that The New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper had run a story the year before saying as much.

But, for whatever reason, officials at the local, state and federal levels ignored the potential problem.

"I don't think we had the most intelligent politicians," Sonja said with a laugh.

The Ransons said there's enough blame to spread around, but as they see it, no one entity is at fault, except perhaps the board that oversaw the levee.

"The levee board was who I always blamed," Sonja said. "They weren't tending to business."

What was supposed to be a couple of days spent away from home turned out to be five weeks. People weren't allowed to return to their homes until the neighborhoods had been swept for bodies by the National Guard.

Robert's cat was never found, and Sonja just assumed that Ruby had died or had gotten out after her home was looted.

So, it was quite a surprise when she found Ruby alive, surviving in the house's attic after being forced to the top of the house by the floodwaters. Sonja has since surmised the cat survived by eating the rats, snakes, fish and other creatures that washed through the house.

Sonja's and Robert's houses were uninhabitable after the storm, and looters took many of the things that had any value, including those with sentimental value.

Sonja said she heard reports of cars with license plates from all over the country, including California, driving through the city to take things. And the police weren't much help, Robert said. There were news reports of officers loading up shopping carts at Wal-Mart to take away DVDs and other merchandise.

"I was like, 'C'mon,' " he said. "It was a no-man's land. It was total chaos."

Heading east

Sonja's younger son, Pete, lives in Macon and owns Johnny's Pizza off Zebulon Road. The Ransons drove east to stay with him while things like insurance claims were being settled.

After a while, they fell in love with the city, and with nothing really left for them in New Orleans -- their homes were gone and many of their friends had left the city -- Robert and Sonja decided to stay in Macon permanently.

Robert is a contract employee with IKON, so moving to Macon wasn't an issue since there's an office here.

He said the biggest adjustment was trying to help his daughter through the trauma of losing her mother and later her home within the span of only a few months.

"She was in a little bit of shellshock," he said. "he was going through severe separation anxiety and a fear of loss."

Robert said that when he'd go to a gas station, Julia would have to stand next to him while he pumped the gas rather than sit inside the car by herself.

But time does heal wounds, and Robert said Julia now lives a normal life in Macon.

"She's quite well-adjusted," he said.

Sonja decided to retire from teaching when she got a call from her principal while still cleaning up her home. Sonja was so wrapped up in the aftermath of the storm she had forgotten the first day of school. When faced with the prospect of staying in a cot at the school gym, Sonja decided it was time to retire and move on.

Many of her friends did the same. Sonja said her best friend moved to be with her mother in Arizona, not realizing until she got there that her mother was terminally ill.

"My friend said, 'Thank God for Katrina,' " Sonja recalled. "She spent a whole year renewing her life with her mother before she died."

These days, Sonja has settled into a routine in Macon that includes exercise classes at Trained by Cain, coffee at Dolce Vita and time with her book club.

They both marvel at how involved and passionate many Macon residents are about their local governments, especially with issues such as the recent sales tax vote. They noted that had New Orleans residents had the same level of involvement, perhaps the levees would never have failed.

Surviving something like Katrina has put things in perspective for the Ransons.

"People complain about crime here, but if you go to New Orleans, you'd quit complaining," Robert said with a chuckle. "It's funny to hear people talk about."

When the Mother's Day tornado hit Macon in 2008, the Ransons were well-prepared for it.

"There were some trees that got knocked over around here," Robert said. "It was bad, but it was not catastrophic."

Sonja lost most of her family photo albums and other mementos during Katrina. She's saved a few battered VHS tapes and old 8mm film rolls, hoping one day that someone might be able to get photos made from the film.

Meanwhile, she still has Ruby to keep her company.

"When we were finally allowed to return to New Orleans, I had already grieved for her loss, never expecting to ever see her green eyes again," she said. "(I) hoped that she did not think I had deserted her. But she hung in there and waited for me."

This story was originally published August 29, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "5 years after Katrina, family reflects on storm and relocation to Macon."