"When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast 20 years ago this week, Rochelle Wilcox had no evacuation plan. She didn't even know a storm was coming. But as word spread that the cyclone was heading for New Orleans, she and her husband turned on the news, catching an interview with a Mississippian who lost his wife to the floodwaters while trying to save his son."
""We can't take that chance," Wilcox's husband told her. "We have two sons. We just need to leave. In the black of night, they fled shortly before the hurricane destroyed their Lower Ninth Ward home. "We had 11 feet of water in our house," Wilcox said. "Our house was right by the levee, so we lost everything." That included the early learning center she ran from her home."
"Before Katrina, about 275 licensed centers operated across New Orleans, according to Agenda for Children, the state's first child care resource and referral agency. But by early the next year, only 38 had reopened. The dearth of early childhood education options left families who wanted to move back to the storm-ravaged city unable to do so because they needed care for their children while they returned to the local workforce."
When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, many residents lacked evacuation plans; Rochelle Wilcox and her husband fled their Lower Ninth Ward home after seeing a news interview about a Mississippi man who lost his wife. Their house flooded with 11 feet of water, destroying their home and the early learning center Wilcox ran there. Wilcox returned within months and opened Wilcox Academy of Early Learning less than a year after the storm. Before Katrina, about 275 licensed centers served New Orleans; by early the following year only 38 had reopened. The scarcity of early childhood programs hampered families' ability to move back and threatened children's long-term academic and social development.
Read at Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
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