Hurricane evacuees from MS following Isaac in CO

New Orleans gets a lot of attention during a hurricane, but Isaac also has some former evacuees now living in Colorado, worried about the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Hurricane Katrina devastated the coast seven years ago, and the area has yet to fully recover. Now, Isaac threatens to bring tornadoes, heavy rain and flooding to southern Mississippi.

Among those who relocated to Colorado after Katrina are Valerie Moore and her teen son, Ammon Jackson. They lived in Pass Christian, a small town west of Gulfport. The family now lives in Fountain.

Moore said she has around 30 relatives who live on or near the coast, and they’ve been safe so far. She said she was a child when one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded, Camille, hit the coast in 1969.

Fear of hurricanes is why she likely will never return to the coast to live, she said.

“It’s not the same,” she said of the atmosphere there. “It’ll never be the same.”

Jackson said he has post-traumatic stress disorder because of Katrina.

“I actually woke up at around 2:30 this morning with a nightmare of the hurricane,” he said. “That was the first time in two years, so I found that a little weird. It kind of made me feel like natural disasters were out to get me.”

Jackson said the Waldo Canyon Fire also made him nervous because he didn’t know how to prepare for it.

Moore said many of her relatives are older and reluctant to leave the coast, despite the threat of hurricanes.