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Katrina victims now in Hixson suffer massive house fire

By: Adam Crisp
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Nearly three years after floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina chased Brent and Stephanie Cooper from their suburban New Orleans home to Hixson, the family of four is starting all over — again.

On Aug. 22, while Mr. Cooper took the couple’s two children to McDonald’s for a quick meal, Mrs. Cooper fluffed a load of clothes in the family’s Maytag dryer.

“I went upstairs to do some work ... and then I heard this loud boom. I ran downstairs, and the clothes had caught on fire and the pressure caused the dryer door to blow open,” Mrs. Cooper said.

The fire spread, and more than 60 percent of their Hidden Harbor home has significant fire or water damage, Mrs. Cooper said. No corner of the house is free from smoke damage, she said.

Soaked floors and blackened walls are only slightly reminiscent of Katrina’s damage, but the feeling inside is entirely the same, the couple says.

“The loss compares,” said Mr. Cooper, a sheriff’s deputy in Bradley County, Tenn. “You’ve lost everything, and you’ve got to start all over.

“We had just really gotten back into a routine, and everything was starting to feel pretty normal,” he said.

Fortunately, like back when Katrina hit, the Coopers had insurance that will pay for temporary housing while crews work to repair their home. Mrs. Cooper said the family was helped back in 2005 by the Red Cross, which gave them the essentials such as food and clothing until the insurance could help.

This time, the Greater Chattanooga Area American Red Cross helped by putting the family up in a hotel and by giving the Coopers a credit card that could be used for immediate expenses.

“We spent $160,000 last year helping fire victims like the Coopers,” said Claudia Moore, a local Red Cross spokeswoman. “We had a lot of disasters all over the country. Right now we’re on alert if there are evacuations because of Hurricane Gustav.”

The Coopers moved here in October 2005. Hurricane Katrina, which landed ashore Aug. 29, 2005, caused major flooding and levee breaches in New Orleans. Nearly 1,500 people were killed along the Gulf Coast.

The couple worries their 5-year-old daughter, Suzanne, is going to be the most affected.

“I really don’t have time to be sad or to cry. I’ve got to worry about my kids,” Mrs. Cooper said.

Mrs. Cooper hasn’t yet told her daughter that all her belongings will have to be discarded. She is thankful that her 5-month-old son, David, likely won’t remember any of what has happened.

Late last week, the Cooper family moved out of a hotel room and into a nearby apartment complex.

The insurance and the Red Cross ease the family’s worries, she said.

“They made it all a lot easier to cope with,” Mrs. Cooper said. “We at least had a roof over our heads until Monday when the insurance money was in our bank account.”

But the Red Cross has been facing greater need while contributions have been on the decline, Ms. Moore said.

Earlier this summer, the Chattanooga branch reported a 10 percent reduction in charitable contributions from this year to last and a reduction in funds from the United Way that amounted to a $150,000 budget shortfall.

“It hasn’t gotten any better,” Ms. Moore said.

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