Rita hits close to home

Though Hurricane Rita has come and passed, the impact of its wrath will still have lasting impacts on the Southern University family.
Before the storm hit, sophomore business management major and Galveston, Texas native Manuela Gomez stayed separated from her family while they attempted to get to higher ground.
Naturally, she wanted to stay with her family, but she was left to stay in her dormitory room on campus.
Gomez, 19, recounted her “stressful” situation of how she feared for her family’s safety and how the heavy traffic on the Texas roads — an estimated 2 million people — failed to put her fears to rest.
“I was so scared because at first, my dad was going to ride the storm out and we don’t have a phone at home,” Gomez said. “So when he called me and told me he was getting on the bus, it was like a really, really big relief off me.”
Gomez said her 11-year-old twin sisters and 16-year-old brother were also OK. They fled the storm to San Antonio with their mother.
Her father sent word to them that their house held up against the Category 3 hurricane.
“(It’s) “like a big thing of stress just gone,” she said. “Then I had all my pictures, but I was mainly worried about my daddy,” she said.
Meanwhile, Southern alum and Lake Charles native Kaylon Easton said he had to open his 1-bedroom crib to his nine-member extended family.
“Born and raised as an only child, I’ve never had to share my space,” said Easton, whose apartment is in Baton Rouge. “Now I’m sharing my bathroom and bedroom. I’m sharing my food supply. I’m sharing everything, but it’s been wonderful.”
In the crowded space, Easton said his family have been bonding, reminiscing, telling jokes, cooking, eating and cleaning
“It’s been fun,” said Crystal Briscoe, 15, one of Easton’s temporary roommates. Crystal is a student at Lagrange High School in Lake Charles.
“I’m ready to go back to school now,” she said.
Besides missing home, the sophomore missed more sentimental things such as her high school’s homecoming.
Easton, a self-professed “neat freak,” joked that already, three of the nine family members were not welcomed back.