Susannah Colt in Jackson Square, New Orleans.

Suzy, as she is known to her friends, watched the broadcasts showing the devastation.  She says, “Then I read about the Red Cross training program and the need for volunteers; I jumped in my car and drove straight to the Great Bay headquarters [she is a resident of Barrington] because I couldn’t get them on the phone.  I was one of 20 walk-ins that day who were accepted on the spot.”

A member of the NH Bar since 1990, Colt in her early years in New Hampshire worked for Shaines & McEachern in Portsmouth and gained nationwide recognition as the attorney who assisted in efforts to free June Briand, a young woman who had killed her abusive husband.  As a result of the appeal, Briand was pardoned by Gov. Merrill in 1996.

Colt left Shaines and McEachern in 1997 to go into private practice, and in 1999 she joined New Hampshire Legal Assistance (NHLA), heading up its Domestic Violence Project. (In fact, when Colt visited the Bar Center recently to speak with Bar News about her experiences with the Red Cross, there was a Pro Bono marathon going on. She spent several hours on the telephone that afternoon helping to recruit fellow attorneys.) Within the past few years, however, Colt stopped practicing law altogether to care for her terminally ill mother.  It was during the period following her mother’s death that the Katrina disaster occurred. 

Colt’s Red Cross training began on Sept. 3; she received her assignment on Sept. 7 and left Sept. 10.  Her initial destination was Mobile, Ala. When she arrived in Mobile, she was quartered in a hotel with other volunteers. 

She spent the next four weeks working in a church/shelter in Saraland, north of Mobile, traveling three hours each day just to get there and back and working  a 12-hour shift (9 p.m. to 9 a.m.).  When she was not needed, she could sleep a few hours on one of the cots at the shelter.  After each 12-hour shift, the volunteers were given 24 hours off.  Later on, Colt became shelter manager and essentially spent 12 hours on and 12 hours off duty, in a continuing cycle.

Life in a Shelter

Colt kept an e-mail journal of her experiences during this time. (Much of the information in this article came from this journal and the complete entries are posted at http://www.nhbar.org/publications/ColtJournal.asp.) On Sept.17, she wrote: “Our shelter population has been around 20 to 30 people a night.  We have people from New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama.  I’d say we are 50 percent white and 50 percent black….The shelter is in the nice large gymnasium of the church [Bayou Sara Baptist Church].  The residents are provided cots, bedding, towels, plenty of shower and toilet facilities.”  Not all evacuees were so fortunate, as the public learned sometime later when the terrible conditions in several other shelters became known. 

Evacuees at Bayou Sara were provided hot meals by the Red Cross at first—and then given food to fix, which Colt and her fellow workers prepared—and the church members provided hot dinners twice a week.  The evacuees finally received vouchers for emergency cash to buy food and clothing or whatever else they needed. 

Colt continued in her entry of Sept. 17: “If you are looking for something to do to help the victims of this disaster, I’d suggest sending money rather than things.  Also, I’d suggest beginning to write to your representatives to encourage them to do the right thing in this recovery.  This is such a prime opportunity to undo the centuries of oppression and racism in the south and I hope we don’t squander it by making the rich richer and the poor poorer.”

The steady population of the shelter was about 25 people—but Colt remarks in her journal on Sept. 23: “We are also beginning to see people attempting to register who are not survivors of Hurricane Katrina, but are actually chronically homeless people.  My heart breaks for those individuals…. If the homeless show up after dark, we do let them stay the night, but on condition that they check out after breakfast the next day….”

On Oct. 2 she wrote: “The highlight of this week [at Bayou Sara] was a talent show organized by our mental health person and some of the children who have been here for the duration.  I wish I had had a video camera to document it.  The kids performed magic tricks, sang songs, did gymnastics, did break dancing, and inspired adults to pitch in.  The adults sang amazing gospel songs….”

Some Knotty Problems Solved—at Least Temporarily

Colt comments on the large number of social workers sent down to help the people in shelters determine their qualifications for emergency funds:  “It has been a nightmare trying to figure out how to get the money to these people, while at the same time trying to ferret out fraudulent claims.  [The] Red Cross tried to convince me to sign up for that job, but I opted to stick with working in the shelter.” 

Of the final disposition of the people at the shelter, Colt reports, “[Some] went to live at a FEMA sponsored RV Park in Troy, Ala.”  These were large families, one with six people and another with seven.  “They were given two RV’s each.  I’ve seen the RV’s and they aren’t very big.  But they are a space of their own and it’s better than nothing….”

The shelter had been scheduled to close on Oct. 1, but the volunteers received word that a large apartment complex had just been condemned and the shelter was to stay open for those people.  “[My staff] worked feverishly to disinfect and pack up all the cots and blankets…. We rallied and put up 20 cots, went to the Laundromat to wash sheets and towels and make sure we had enough supplies and food for the new folks.”  However, the people from the condemned building never came—but other people did.  Colt wrote that people who were returning to their homes had not anticipated the consequences of the mold which resulted from the flooding.  Many had to leave again until their houses could be completely cleaned out, so they needed the shelters.

Another Shelter

“My next shelter experience was totally different.  It [the shelter] was located in a community center in Bayou La Batre,” Colt continued in an Oct. 30 entry. This was a poor fishing/shrimping community of many different skin colors and ethnicities (including many Chinese, Vietnamese and Cambodian people).  The entire coastal city had been destroyed by Katrina, but of a community of about 2,000 people, only around 200 used the shelter.  Many people preferred to pitch tents near their ruined homes.  Several of the huge shrimping boats had ended up on dry land, having been picked up by the wind and waves and set down several yards inland.  When Colt arrived on Oct. 5, the boats had still not been moved.

A Dec. 27 New York Times article recounted the on-going difficulties in these coastal communities.  The government wants to relocate people farther inland, but has met with considerable resistance.  Family-owned land, 200-year-old traditions and the need to be near the ocean for their livelihood influences the thinking of many residents.  They don’t want to leave, even if they have to ride out another hurricane.

New Orleans, the Ghost Town

Colt had always seen New Orleans from the tourist’s point of view, multi-cultured, many-colored.  On Oct. 11 she finally made her first trip into the city with two of her new friends.  “[We] drove to New Orleans…I became the tour guide and they were wide-eyed and willing victims of my guidance.  All I can say at this point is that I cry every time I think of our tour.  It’s not the same and it never will be…. It was like a ghost town. It looked like a city hit by an atom bomb or a blitzkrieg…

“Of course, there was no trolley on St. Charles.  In fact, it didn’t even look as if the trolley tracks had survived the storm…. The French Quarter had a few stores open here and there.  We had a very hard time finding a restaurant that was open.  We finally ended up at the Royal Café and had the only thing on the menu, hamburgers and coke.  I thought I was on Saturday Night Live.  The characters working at the café were [like] something out of an independent film….”

Colt stands in front of one of the many piles of debris in New Orleans, not far from where the 17th Street Canal levy was breached.

From Childhood, Civic Involvement

Having grown up in a family in which both parents were always involved in the life of their community, Colt early on developed an ethic that included helping others.  Her parents were museum professionals in Dayton, Ohio and she was constantly exposed to different cultures; she was always encouraged to “look beyond the box,” as she puts it.  An art history major in college, Colt took an unexpected path after graduation.

She went to work for a New York City law firm as a legal secretary. “I found that particular part of the legal profession boring—but as I watched the attorneys, I thought to myself, ‘I can do what they’re doing’—so I took the LSAT’s and passed.  But I didn’t go to law school right away.” 

Colt spent some time doing legal research, but in 1986, her mother had an accident in Mali while on an African art safari.  She crushed some vertebrae in her back and Colt flew to Geneva to care for her.  Later, they both returned to Dayton and Colt continued to help her mother.  “Then one day I was doing some weeding in the garden and thinking about my life—and I decided to go to law school,” she says.  She graduated from the University of Dayton Law School in 1989.

Although her legal career has been marked by a significant commitment to public service, Colt said her first Hurricane Katrina volunteer experience completely changed her, and upon her return to New Hampshire, her thoughts were of how soon she could go back.

Willing To Go Again

On Oct. 31, the Red Cross did call again and Colt soon found herself on her way to Baton Rouge.  Hurricane Rita had followed closely on the heels of Katrina and ruin along the gulf coast had become even more widespread.  When Colt arrived, she was shuttled to a staff shelter containing about 100 cots.  She says she felt a little like an evacuee herself. 

On Nov. 1 the volunteers rose early, having been awakened at 6 a.m., and were bused to a large Red Cross headquarters in a Wal-Mart store.  They were given an orientation that included an overview of the disaster, including both hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and information about the people it affected:

Over 80 percent of the entire state population of Louisiana had never set foot out of the state. But after the hurricanes, over 25 percent of the entire state’s population became evacuees, many of whom left the state never to return.

The Red Cross opened more than 1,000 shelters, provided over 3 million overnight stays and served 25 million meals. During the two hurricane events, 212,000 volunteers performed the work, compared to the 35,000 who had volunteered during the 2004 hurricane season.

Sixty-four percent of the state is Caucasian, while 33 percent is African American.  In the New Orleans area, however, 43 percent is Caucasian, while 56 percent is African American. Many African Americans in New Orleans have since felt that the government’s slow response to their plight was in some measure race-related.  At Congressional hearings in Washington, representatives from black communities, particularly the 9th Ward, have decried the treatment of black citizens during the evacuation, saying they were often treated more like criminals than people in trouble.

Scrambling To Find Homes

On her second stay, Colt was sent to the FG Clark Activity Center Shelter on the campus of Southern University in Baton Rouge.  There were still about 150 evacuees at that shelter; at peak occupancy, it had housed over 600 people.  Probably about 90 percent of the remaining clients were from the 9th Ward of New Orleans, the poorest and hardest-hit section of the city.  “A couple of days after my arrival,” wrote Colt,  “we were informed that the shelter was closing on Nov. 15, which meant we had to convince FEMA to get their trailers ready for our clients…. Not long after we announced the closing of the shelter, the government said that it was not going to continue paying for the cost of keeping evacuees in hotels [where they might have hoped to go if a shelter were closed to them].  It was quite possible that our clients were going to find themselves in a Catch 22.  The pressure was immense.”

On Saturday, Nov. 5, the volunteers succeeded in moving 25 families into their trailers.  On Nov. 15 there were nine people left at the shelter and the volunteers placed all but one, who chose to remain homeless….  The shelter then closed.

Colt next found herself in a supply job. “I learned that I am capable of driving large 15-foot and 24-foot trucks without incident….  My job for the next couple of weeks was to pick up and deliver Red Cross supplies [including lots of drinking water] throughout the southern tier of Louisiana….”

In speaking with Bar News, Colt mused, “Will New Orleans ever come back—and if it does, will it be largely a white community servicing the rich?  The potential for civil rights’ violations is enormous. You can’t help realizing that we are still very racist in the South.  This is our opportunity to repair a lot of the bad stuff that’s a part of our history.  I hope we will take the opportunity to do so.”

An Upside-down Life

In an e-mail to friends and family on Dec. 1, Colt wrote, “I find myself longing to be back in the South.  It’s hard for me to understand this feeling because I’ve always felt that my heart belonged in the Northeast…Yesterday I put in an appearance at my local chapter and informed them that I would be willing to return south and continue volunteering….”

“My Red Cross work has been a life-altering experience for me,” says Colt.  “In fact, I don’t plan to return to the practice of law.  I want to become more involved in things at the grass-roots level.  Just not sure what that will be yet….”

For Susannah Colt, her life has indeed been changed by her experiences with the Red Cross.  The new friends she made not only among the volunteers but also among the survivors of the two hurricanes will forever be a part of her life now.  “I’ll never be able to forget them—and I don’t want to,” she says.  “For better or worse, my life has been turned upside down by my experience with the Red Cross.”

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