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All beds on sale up to 50% off the limited edition smart bed plus free premium delivery with any smart bed and adjustable base ends Labor Day. All Sleep number Smart beds offer temperature solutions for your best sleep. Check it out at a Sleep number store or sleepnumber.com today. I'm Jane Marie, and this is the Dream. This week marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina hit our southern coast. At the time, I was a very junior producer at this American Life. I'd only reported one piece ever, and it was about a shop in Chicago that sold spy gear. Nothing like reporting on a natural disaster. About a week after the flood, Ira Glass, Lisa Pollock, and I went to Houston to tape at the Astrodome, which had become a massive shelter where folks who had lost their homes were convened to find new ones or to get medical care or food or rest. I brought Lisa in to look back on our time there and to revisit that reporting the pieces we made 20 years ago, which you'll get to hear. Let's back up to, you know, before the levees broke, it was still like a big story, you know, like the storm was bad and we had started brainstorming of like how we wanted to cover the hurricane. And of course the rules of what gets on this American Life are weird. And I don't remember who pitched going to Houston, but it was like we were just having these brainstorm meetings kind of every day. At that point I feel like it would have been us. I mean, I well, because I want to go there. I want to go someplace where something's happening. The first thing I think I learned when we were planning this is like, because we had such a hard time Finding a vehicle in a hotel. Remember that we had to drive around in that moving van that didn't have seats in it? Yes, I forgot about that. We were in, like, a budget rental van. Moving van, because it was the only vehicle we could find. And so we flew into Houston, we got the moving van, and then we stayed at, like, a really bad motel. That is what I remember. I will always remember the bar of soap because it was, like, generic soap, you know what I mean? And it was the thinnest bar of soap. And then I remember the towel being, like, kind of as thin as, you know. Yeah. Really? Those scratchy towel towels. That was a really bad motel. But, you know, at that, people had nowhere to live. What do we say? I mean, people had nowhere to live. But also, a lot of the hotels in Houston were being used. There was the voucher system, Right. And so, like, the nicer hotels were booked up kind of right away by giving people a free place to stay for a little bit. And so we had to kind of stay outside of town, which, if you've never driven around Houston, Holy moly, that town is big. That was very far. Beltway. There was a beltway. I don't know if they call it the Beltway, but it's. It's over an hour side to side, that city. So we were kind of all over the place. So we get there, we get this, like, weird moving van. One of us has to sit on the floor in the back, and we head to the Astrodome, which was a little bit better than what the Superdome had been described. You know, like the roof wasn't caved in or anything, but it was bad chaos. Do you want to describe it? Actually, no. I mean, I just remember it was cots and cots and cots and announcements, announcements, Announcements over the loudspeakers. Bright lights. They never turned the fluorescent lights off. And it was. You could tell that, like, a lot of people were ill. And so it had, like, a germ haze and, like, big bottles of sanitizer that probably weren't that effective. It just felt so. Ugh. And all these people. Some people just collapsed on the. On the cot in the middle of the day. And the bright fluorescent lighting, and it was. It was tough. There wasn't a plan yet, really. So it was a lot of just sitting around waiting for the powers that be to announce what to do next. You know, I felt like nobody. Well, first of all, not everybody had their cell phone. Not everybody had their wallets or anything. People didn't have. Yeah, people didn't have ids, they didn't have money or driver's licenses or anything that you would need. It was really chaotic. And the way that the government at that moment chose to manage it was with national Guard. I think those guys had the, with the machine guns. But there wasn't like a Plan 1 program that they did kind of have. Slightly organized, but it wasn't really organized. I don't think there was like a vetting process, but there was a room outside of the Superdome which housed all of these tables from different states and like luring people to their state. Yes. It was one of those efforts by lots of different types of nonprofit organizations. So, you know, sometimes it would be like a church would be funding people moving to Wyoming and you know, another kind of organization would be funding people moving to Michigan. And like no one was taking advantage of it. I know, that was so weird. Well, the tables, the different states were giving away different things, but jobs, utilities, paid for, apartment, car. Like it depended on what state you were going to go to, what they had to. To offer. But it felt like being at a science fair. Like a, or like a school. I was going to say like a bake sale almost. It was so low tech. Poster board with the word Colorado written on it. The Colorado table. Yeah, we can play my piece. Forgive the way I'm doing my vo. It was my second time ever recording my voice and Ira was directing me. And if people don't already know, like he, you know, wants it flatter, flatter, flatter. Oh my God, that's. I mean, but mine's the same. The same. Like you're dead. It sounds like you're dying and you're depressed or something. Yeah. And I just sounded so quiet, like I don't want to say anything. Yeah. Back then. Yeah, yeah, same. And I'm mush mouthed and I just, I don't know what I'm doing. But anyway, so this was like, this is a little bit of a bright spot, this story. Eventually, Colorado did actually manage to get some people to relocate. They got 35 people after two weeks of trying. And the reason people finally said yes was desperation. FEMA had let everyone know that the temporary housing was ending, hotel vouchers were ending for families that were in hotels, and people were being moved out of the Astrodome. First in line for the bus to Colorado were twin sisters, Kokini and Kayla. They're six. And here's what they know about the place they're about to move. I know that it's beautiful. It's a beautiful place, and it has lots of mountains, and I know that it's a. It's. It's so beautiful. Anybody. Anybody will want to go there. Where did you hear that? I heard it from a snow. A snow movie. They like snow dogs and a snow dog. It took place. What's the name of the place? Colorado. And Colorado. Colorado, yeah. How's the last couple of weeks been? It's like adventure, let me tell you. It's like an adventure that we're going all. We. We've been almost everywhere. We had so much fun. We went to Baton Rouge, we went to the shelter, and then Alexandra, then back to back, so. So. And we had to live in Hotel the Scottish. Yeah, Scottish Hotel and Suites. That's what. When I talked to their mom, Coquina, she said that they overheard her talking on the phone, telling a friend that the last few weeks have really been an adventure. She was being sarcastic, but the girls picked it up and just as well. It took a little more convincing for their mom. I thought that New York, the cost of living is too high to start. Make a. You know, start there. And I thought, I don't want to go to Florida by any more storms. So Colorado seems safe and why not Houston or. Well, I was trying to establish in Houston, but like I said, I only had 14 days to get everything done. Otherwise we'd be on the street trying to get it done. So when I heard Colorado, I jumped on it. Yeah. Oh, Jane, you gotta be ashamed. You little boy kiss you and you don't know his name. At this point, the girls decided I was done talking to their mom and they wanted the microphone back, which they suddenly realized was real. And I actually was from the radio. And they had business and about the hurricane and our sister and brother, we. We can't find them. You can't find your brother and sister? No. When Katrina hit, we never heard since we left K. And Jamal is listening to this. We love you and we miss you. We met lots of people at the Astrodome who are still missing friends and family. There's an office that reunites families with lists of survivors and their locations. But their mom says the last time they saw Jamal in Kiana was when she dropped them off with their dad and grandparents in New Orleans before evacuating just before the storm. She's acting confident that they're okay. So the girls are acting confident, too. I love that story. They're like, we got to stay in this hotel and suites. Really cute. Oh, my God. That was really good. This episode of the Dream Podcast is sponsored by Nordstrom. Nordstrom brings you the season's most wanted brands, Mango Skims, Levi's, Free People, BDG and more. All with items perfect to transition you from summer into fall. From the latest trends to beauty must haves, Nordstrom has curated styles you'll wear on repeat with tons of styles under a hundred bucks. Transitional pieces like lightweight outerwear, trench coats and cardigans paired with skirts, shorts and denim. Nordstrom makes it easy to get what you need within your daily routine and with free standard shipping all the time plus two day and next day options to get items to you faster. Risk free shopping with free returns in store or by mail. Fast options like in store pickup, curbside at Nordstrom stores or in store at Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack. Both options are quick and convenient so I highly recommend it. I love Nordstrom. Explore more of Nordstrom in store or online@nordstrom.com or download the Nordstrom app. Checking off the boxes on your to do list is a great feeling. That's why a State Farm agent is there to help you choose a coverage option that's right for you. Whether you're getting a new house, car, boat or rv, helping Protected is important and State Farm is there to help you choose the coverage you need. Whether you prefer talking in person on the phone or using the award winning app. And with so many coverage options, it's nice knowing you have help finding coverage that best fits your needs so you can continue to focus on what's most important important to you like a good neighbor. State Farm is there why choose a Sleep Number Smart Bed Can I make my site softer? Can I make my site firmer? Can we sleep cooler? Sleep Number does that cools up to eight times faster and lets you choose your ideal comfort on either side. Your Sleep Number setting It's the Sleep Number Biggest sale of the year all beds on sale up to 50% off the limited edition smart bed plus free premium delivery with any smart bed and adjustable base ends Labor Day. All Sleep Number Smart beds offer temperature solutions for your best sleep. Check it out at a Sleep number store or sleepnumber.com today. Hey listeners. Meet Russell. Hey. Russell just launched a fitness app and he needed to get the word out to busy professionals looking to stay fit. So I turned to acast. I used their Smart Recommendations feature to easily find shows that talk about health and fitness. Booking sponsorships through their platform was a breeze and just like that, my apple was in their ears during their morning run. Sounds like a smart move. Russell. How's business looking now. Sweat is pouring and so are the installs. Spread the word about your business with podcast ads on Acast. Start today@go.acast.com advertise. But when we went out together, you and I, you had this story about the vouchers for apartments. And I kept fucking up during that reporting because I hadn't, I'd never done that sort of reporting before and I didn't. It was so wait, how did you up. Well, because everybody was so racist and I kept stepping in to try to help people and you and Ira would have to be like, you know, like, shut up. Like, don't. Because you mean just let them be racist. Yeah, or just, or just, you know, let the story happen as it's happening. And it was so hard for. I was just, I was inexperienced. I didn't really understand what my job was. And when I was seeing like a whole bus full of black people being put through the wringer by these racist white people. Plus, we had, you and I had been out in the world those couple of days. Yeah, I had been observing a lot of casual racism. Yeah. I believe there was an Applebee's near our hotel and the bartenders and the people kind of sitting near the bar were just like using the N word and talking about how their city's being overrun and all the crime that's been coming in. And it was like people were really very casually super racist. The paper actually had to write a story saying there isn't more crime here because of all these refugees from Katrina. But it was what all the white people were talking about, just how destroyed Houston suddenly was and was going to remain if these people, you know, kept their housing vouchers and stuck, stuck around. It was insane and offensive and ridiculous. It's 3pm when we get to the housing center and it's not a happy place. There are hundreds of people here slumped in folding chairs, jostling in lines, pleading for volunteers to help them. Tense looking cops are everywhere and soldiers in camouflage fatigues. It makes the DMV look like a day spa. In the section of chairs where we're standing, there's this sudden wave of movement. People stand up and there's some yelling. Turns out an official with a bullhorn just told the whole group to leave and come back tomorrow. They won't get apartments today. And one of the women standing near us has clearly reached her limit. You should have apartments first before you bring the people in. You're bringing the people in before the apartments is available. Now her name is Ina May. She's been here since early this morning. She says, just like she was told to be, looking for a place for herself and her teenage sons. At this point, the only way to manage her frustration is to share it with everyone she sees, including, apparently, one of the less tolerant cops in the room. The police just told me that they would arrest me, you know what I mean, and put me out. Put me out where? Where they gonna put me out at? That's why. Did the police threaten you? If I. If we get loud and all this kind of stuff, they gonna put us to jail. If we have any problems, they gonna put us in jail and all. What you mean? You know, man, come on, give us a break, man. Give us a break. If we get loud, you know what I'm saying? And we're not gonna let you holler at us. Well, which I feel like. Like screaming. What you mean all that? I could scream to the top of my. Do he understand the pressure I'm under? But right now, mister, you holding me up right now, because the people. I'm getting in line. I am a go stand in another line, the line to sign up for tomorrow's line, which turns out to be the wrong line. A volunteer points her in the right direction. Excuse me, ma'. Am. This line, okay? This is the four bedroom. I am sorry. Okay. It was confusing. Yeah. Thank you. I don't know what happened. Soon as they walk in in the morning, we're getting buses and we're taking people out to their homes. It is a success story beyond your imagination that you may need to print or say something about on radio. This is Guy Rankin, the man with the unenviable job of running this place. When I stumble onto him in the middle of the arena, he says, things are actually going pretty well here, and he means it. The 25,000 people that are in Dome now, we're down to 3,000. They had to go somewhere. Where we housed most of them, we had 3,000, 144 people taking the housing over the last five to seven days right off the dome floor. Okay? 800 seniors we took right off the Dome floor, provided transportation, social services, and a full aspect of training. Nurses, doctors, and all of that. I just got back. If all these numbers don't quite match up to the chaos around us, it's for a reason. The housing voucher program, like so much of the Katrina aid, is a work in progress, being assembled on the fly. At first, when hurricane victims showed up, they were told to sign up, and then they'd be called when housing came available for them. Lots of people never got calls. And because that system was moving too slowly, it was changed midstream. Now, how it works is what we're seeing today. People come to the housing center and wait for buses that will take them directly to the apartments that have been chosen for them. But the system is still messy. Ima, for instance, needed a three bedroom apartment, and not enough of those were ready today. But the one and two bedrooms, we didn't have enough people to fill the one and two bedrooms. It was empty. I know you see that look on your face, but we've been housing people day after day, minute after minute, taking buses out, full buses. Those are the stories you need to tell the world and what we're housing. And those are the units you need to go see. Well, how can we come out and see some of it? I know there was a bus just leaving now that we were hoping we might come along on. Did I? Yeah, but girl, I'm gonna call y' all when I make it and let y' all know how it look, because they told me they are lovely. It's the Timber Ridge Apartments. As it turned out, the bus he said we missed was running late. And we caught the last one just as it was loading. The people lined up, didn't really know where they were going, just that they'd have an apartment when they got there. There were seven families, mostly couples. One little boy and a very, very pregnant woman named LaShawn Price, who said she didn't want to have to bring a new baby back to the Astrodome. I ask her when she's due and she says any day, which turns out to be an understatement. Do you have a doctor here or anything? No, I'm too far along to get a health care doctor. I just have to wait it out. And they'll just tell you to go to the ER when you go into labor. Yeah, I'm already 3 centimeters, so I'm just waiting on the next centimeter. You're in labor? But they can't keep me until I'm four. Did you let the other set of seats down? We all get on the bus. Lashawn, still completely calm, is having contractions at this point. And the housing official who's coming with us hands out the voucher forms. We drive for a while on the freeway and people are starting to get nervous. We seem really far from the astrodome. Finally, after 45 minutes, we get there. This is it. This it. It's a nice looking townhouse. Development with garages and tidy landscaping and new brick and siding. And for the first time all day, there's a sense that things are getting better. Boy, we got lucky. We got lucky. We got lucky because after six months, y' all gonna be on your ass. All right? On the inside looks very, very beautiful. We're in the clubhouse now. It's big, kind of like the lobby of a Hampton Inn. And there's a loveseat and wing back chairs and a fancy flower arrangement on the front table. Out the back, through the glass doors, you can see a pool and basketball courts. The families line up as if out of habit. They all stand there looking around, flipping through the brochures. A few minutes go by, a few more. In the back corner of the room are two young women. They obviously work there. And they see we're here, but they don't come up to us or even say hello. They're talking about what to do and everyone knows it. And Lashawn says what everyone's thinking. Is there a problem? But the women don't hear her, and the waiting continues. Finally, after 15 minutes, one of them comes forward. She's the assistant manager, though she doesn't introduce herself. She asks everyone to get out their Social Security cards and birth certificates, and she gets some incredulous looks. He just came from a flood of waters. Where are you going to put that? That's just too stupid. She hands out the applications. Everyone can get an apartment tonight, she says, as long as they have no previous evictions and a clean criminal record. There's awkward silence in the room, and then the questions begin. So if the people have a bad criminal check, they just have to be homeless. If you know that you have a criminal background. And when I say criminal background, I mean no felonies whatsoever, no matter what it is or how old they are. Misdemeanors for any drug related, sex related crime or violence against person or property. Okay, so that's what I mean by criminal. So if you don't. If those. If those four things do not apply to you, or if you do not have an eviction, or if you do not owe a property any money, then yes, you will be in. Lashawn turns to me. This is bs. This is a straight. Do you have one? Do I have a conviction? Yeah, I have a conviction. But a felony or misdemeanor? It's a felony, but it still doesn't stop me from working. I just took a charge for my sister. That's not fair. Now it's getting really Tense. The housing department guy is arguing with the assistant manager. People are pulling out their cell phones. There's some yelling. In a way, it's no different than things have been for weeks now. The rules keep changing and no one tells them, and nothing ends up quite how it's supposed to be. Remember last week when the big story was the theme of debit cards? Some people got them, others didn't. Next to me, lashawn's getting more agitated by the minute. I can't believe she's not 4cm dilated by now. Her old life with her own apartment and her job as a medical records assistant seems as far away as ever. That support that you put about to go insane behind. You know, you're not in your right frame of mind no more. Because if you think about everywhere you go, you're standing in the line for six, seven damn hours. So get up there for somebody to get a damn run around. You know, after a while, it's starting to be. Then you can't even go home to somewhere and relax. You're going back to Damn center with 15, 20,000 people in it. You know, you can't even sit down and have a peace of mind for a second. I wish I had an answer for myself right now, but I don't. Lisa, the assistant manager, seems a little overwhelmed. And basically what happened is that they were supposed to be here earlier in the day, and they came five minutes before we were supposed to close. And then the bus driver's giving them 15 minutes to get back on the bus. And that's just not adequate time enough for us to be able to get them in and out. I mean, I feel really bad. A regional manager shows up promising to help people, but it's too late. Everyone feels discriminated against. Here's LaShawn and another woman as they get back on the bus. Them bads looked at us like we was misfits. And y' all Negroes ain't getting in here. That's not right. You coming from nowhere. You have nothing. They know you don't have nothing. And then for you to turn around and try to makeshift throw a little, little, you know, little stepping stones in front of you like that, bro. That's not right. That's not right. The housing official, he's back on the bus, too, tells me he doesn't know why this has happened. It's his first day, he says, but there's another complex open tonight which also accepts the vouchers. So the bus gets back on the freeway and drives to A neighborhood on the northwest side of the city. Out the bus windows, more and more of the store names are in Spanish. Someone spots a man peddling a little food cart and a bunch of people snicker. By the time the bus stops in front of a weathered two story apartment complex called Villa del Sol, most of the passengers seem a little freaked out. One thing's for sure, this isn't Timber Ridge. For starters, when we get inside, they're ready for us. We have a really nice kids center here. Okay? We have a great kids center here that has five new computers. We crowd into the rental office. It's more basement rec room than Hampton Inn, with mismatched furniture and no slick brochures. But it's clean and comfortable and a table in the center of the room is piled high with food. Pizzas, sodas, chips. Take as much as you want, people are saying. On the wall is a photo collage the neighborhood kids at summer day camp. It's a big party. Okay, I'm gonna need your niches right here, please. Lashawn sits down at the manager's desk and picks up a pen. She looks exhausted. And right here, right there. One more right there too. And I'm gonna need your signature here. It was that simple. She had an apartment six months rent free. So how are you feeling while you're writing this? I don't know. I'm just. Whatever. Whatever. It's got a roof and a door and I can sanitize it and have a new baby. That's all I'm looking for now. No one else from our group even fills out the paperwork. They eat the pizza and drift back to the bus. They'll find something better, they say. I grab one of them. Can I ask you why you want to stay? Why I'm not staying. Couldn't look out four wheels from here. Then look at this, look at, look at. Just look around here. You see yourself. Ain't no good environment. Mexicans and all the people around here. It's hard to miss the fact that some of the same people who are complaining the loudest about discrimination at Timber Ridge were the quickest to say they didn't want to live around a bunch of Mexicans. One of them told me later, if you were in our shoes, wouldn't you feel out of place? It's a different community. A community you're not a part of. Our kids might get picked on or ridiculed. They'll be outsiders. You got the key, right? Yeah. Okay. Flora Rodriguez, the assistant manager, is going to give Lashawn a tour. Jane, my co producer, walks over to the apartment with them. And halfway there, lashawn grabs Jane's hand. If you feel a contraction. Having one. Yeah. Now, okay, this is the apartment. This is a two bedroom apartment and one bed. It's real nice. It has a walk in closet. Let me show you. I mean, they're nice and big. You can fit a bed in there. I'm sure you're going to be happy here. Everybody, I mean people here is very friendly. I've been in this property for five years, so people are nice. It's nice. I'm glad. Thank you. To their credit, the people running this housing program are still working on it, still adjusting it each day, still trying to figure out how to get more people into apartments more quickly. The next morning, we go back to the housing center. Things are a lot the same. Telling us to come back tomorrow. I was here yesterday with my proof. This is my proof. I was here yesterday. You see the 13. I try to talk to Guy Rankin, the guy in charge, but he's busy. He's walking around the arena, going from section to section with a bullhorn, listening to people's complaints and trying to answer their questions. But let me first explain the Housing Choice Center. Some of you may have heard it before, but we need to do it again for everybody who's here. The system still got some problems. Lots of people are asking why they just can't rent their own apartments with the voucher money instead of taking the places chosen for them in neighborhoods they don't know and don't feel comfortable with. It might sound picky, but when I talk to a New Orleans mom whose son has already started elementary school here and is happy there and doesn't want to move again, I'm reminded of how complicated this all is. I listen for a while to Rankin. He tells the crowd he's heard that complaint and that maybe soon there'll be a way to let people choose their own places. It's still being worked out, he says. Even as he speaks later today, he says there might even be a line for that. That system will be set up today and we'll be lining up for that. Okay, lining up for that. I need to take one more question from this group and please be patient with us because we are very, very busy. I know you've been here seven, ten days. Some of us have been here 17 days with it 20 hours a day. Tell me about your last story from there, your last Katrina story that you. That you reported Friday night. Floodlights I think it was called. So it was getting to be going back to school time. And I had the idea in my head that I wondered what teams were doing. Like, you know, you know, schools were shut down, so I don't know why. It just went in my head, like, what's gonna happen to the football team? And the. Like, basically, how does the high school keep running? And how did you know that that would be something that would be important to those. Cause I was not aware. I didn't watch Friday Night Lights, I think, because I watched Friday Night Lights. Okay. And I had read the book Friday Night Lights even before that. So you knew how important football was in these southern states that were affected by the hurricane. Exactly, yeah. And I wondered what would happen, like, are they even going to have games? And then I started looking it up and I saw that there were games on the schedules in these towns that I thought had been destroyed. And I called some coaches and this one particular coach was. Was like, yeah, it's all we got here. So he. He built a team from like, who. And there were kids who had been evacuated to other towns, but they came back and they were like sleeping in trailers or sleeping at the coach's house. I can't remember the exact details. And then it was just one of those, you know, you could have made a movie out of this group of kids, like a total bad news bears, kind of. I had to take a middle schooler and put him, you know, get him ready, even though it was high school and. And trying to find other local schools to play. Yeah, well, that. But somehow the other school, like showed up and they were huge and gleaming uniforms. They had not been affected. As the main character of your life, you know how important it is to make the right choices for you and how sweet it is to feel good about your decisions. With estate farm personal price plan, you have options to help create an affordable price for you so you can continue living your best life. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. Why choose a sleep number Smart bed? Can I make my site softer? Can I make my site firmer? Can we sleep cooler? Sleep number does that cools up to eight times faster and lets you choose your ideal comfort on either side. Your sleep number setting. It's the sleep number biggest sale of the year all beds on sale up to 50% off bought the limited edition smart bed plus free premium delivery with any smart bed and adjustable base ends Labor Day. All sleep number Smart beds offer temperature solutions for your best sleep. Check it out at a Sleep number store or sleepnumber.com today. Say hello to Mia hey there. Mia runs a pet grooming service in Chicago, but getting new clients was rough until I started using Acast. I recorded my ad, targeted pet owners in the area and let Acast do the rest. Now people all over the state city know about my grooming services. Mia's business is looking sharp. What's your secret for happy pets and happy clients? A fresh cut, a friendly vibe and a well placed podcast ad. Get the word out about your business through Acast. Visit go acast.com advertise to get started it was Should I make it suspenseful and make the most maybe we will listen to it. Should we listen to it? Oh my God yeah you should. Let's listen. The Beihai Tigers played their first game of the season on the Friday before Katrina. They beat Hancock High 30 14. After the storm, the joke was that they'd gone undefeated. Everyone figured the season was over. Players were homeless. The high school was closed. But just days after the hurricane, the Bay High coach, Brennan Compretta, started hearing from his players. They wanted to play football. They called his cell and sent text messages. They stopped him on the street. They wanted to play football. They wanted something that reminded them of what life was before. The thing that a lot of them were saying is it only takes 11 to play. And that they, no matter how many they had, they they wanted to do this. That was the only thing that they had to look forward to. You know you wouldn't stage a school play without a school, but football's different here anyway. In Bay St. Louis, game day starts at 6:30am with a team breakfast at a church. Newspaper stories about the game are posted on the wall. At school in the afternoon, drummers from the band march through the hallways. Just before the pep rally, Strangers in Town stop players to talk about that week's game. So even though school won't start again until November, the coach called a meeting to try to restart the team. There were some challenges. Only 19 players showed up of the 70 who were on the team. They couldn't use their practice field since National Guardsmen were camping there. Their field house was destroyed in most of their equipment. And as for their uniforms, we pulled up a few days after the storm. They had people running around in our jerseys and cleats and throwing balls around and, you know, I guess it was fathers and sons or whatever. Wait, you saw people wearing, like, your guys football jerseys just, like, as like replacement clothes, right? Exactly. And, you know, considering the circumstances, you know, I didn't get really upset about it. I just was like, well, I guess if they need some clothes, they can go ahead and take them. You know, they're saying there's a possibility. They're saying it's probably going to be one of the most packed games we've played ever. It's game day. The Tigers very first game since Hurricane Katrina, one month after the storm. And I've flown to Mississippi, where Tyler Brush, the team's quarterback, is showing me around. There's not a lot to see, just huge piles of wreckage. And near the beach, mile after mile of empty spaces where houses and buildings used to be. After the hurricane, Tyler's family left for a while, moved to Florida, to a town where they used to live. They got a nice house, and Tyler began high school there. He was practicing with their football squad, and he was going to be a starter there, too. But then Coach Comprada called. Tyler says coming back here was a hard choice. My dad, he originally didn't want me to come back. I mean, he was pretty much against it. But he decided. I mean, he said that it was my decision. I mean, I had to think about it a lot. I was nervous about coming back. I mean, I recognized the situation I was in. I knew I was taking the chance. If I came back here, college teams might not see me playing. But I felt that I still needed to come back, though, for whoever did come back, his quarterback, he didn't want to let the team down. So now his family's living 15 miles away in Diamondhead, and two of the team's other players whose families didn't return are living with them, too. This is a strange place to be a kid right now with no school. They spend their days doing cleanup work, hauling out sheetrock and moving trees and debris. It's bleak and boring. Their favorite hangouts are gone. Football is one of the few things they have left. We're actually pulling a to my house now. Yeah, this is pretty much nothing left my house. There's stairs right here. We're right here leading up to the house. They're completely gone. Literally. All we are looking at are the wooden stilts that held up the house and the foundation, which looks like it was lifted up from the ground. And, I mean, there isn't even, like, stuff around like Furniture or clothes or. Where all this. Where'd all this stuff go? I guess water just washed them up that way. Wiped out. There's nothing left. Does anybody in here need pants? You need pants. Come with me. Over at the football field, the new uniforms arrived just in time. A gift from a man in North Carolina. And the kids line up while the coaches open the boxes. The new jerseys are blue and white, not blue and gold, the school colors. But no one seems to care. Hold on. Hey, man, we're not getting picky here. Just relax, buddy. What do you need? This isn't the team it used to be. Over half the Tigers still haven't come back. So the coaches have filled out the roster with some new recruits. A few seniors who've never played football, some freshmen from the school's ninth grade team, two guys from the Tigers arch rival St Stanislaus. They cancel their season. And to cap it all off, bad news, bear style. Some scared looking seventh and eighth graders from the junior high. In all, it's still just 29 players, a long way from 70. Some of these kids are all but homeless, sleeping on other families couches and floors. One linebacker is living in a camper alone, his parents hours away. All so he can play football. With everything these kids have been dealing with and everything they've seen, they seem genuinely relieved and excited to be here today. Putting on jerseys and lacing up cleats. Everybody's just anxious to play again, to get things back to normal. That's Trevor Adams, a senior tight end. And for him, getting things back to normal means pretty much one thing. I love hitting people. I mean, there is no better feeling in the world just unloading on somebody. I mean, even now, dealing with all this, you have an extra feel of warmth. You get just that exciting feeling about, you know, hitting somebody. There's no, you can't explain it. Equally excited is Brandt, a 10th grader. I think Brandt might be one of the happiest kids I've ever met. He doesn't stop beaming even when he's talking about swimming through his flooded kitchen or living for weeks without plumbing or power. He moved to Texas to stay with a relative for a while, but didn't stay long. Texas was grayer, but I was rough kind, like, scary kind. It was just like, like, have you ever seen the Stepford Wives, how everything's perfect? That's how it was. They were all like, hi, how are you doing? Can I get you anything? Clothes, food? And I'm like, I'm fine, man. Does this feel like a normal Couple hours before a game or does it feel different? Way different. One thing I'm going to miss before the game is the pre game meals. We don't have that here because them pre game meals are good. All you can eat. What kind of food? Baked chicken with all these spices on it was so good. That was like a month ago. So you've stayed here this whole time? What's there been to eat for you? Three meals a day. MREs. So what's an MRE taste like? I tell you what. Meal number 20 and meal number 22. That's 20 spaghetti and 22's jumbal. The best. I told my mama she needs to step it up because that stuff is. I'm going to start getting MREs. Just regular. Alright. Hey guys. Everybody right here where these guys are. Get down. Y' all can take a knee or something. Let's go real quick. You can sit down or take a knee. Either one. It's late afternoon now, about an hour before the game. Everybody gathers around Coach Compretta and he urges them to think about the past month when they get on the field tonight. Everything you have inside of you, let it out. All the aggravation, the frustration, having to get up and do all that junk you do every day because of this hurricane. Let it all out right here. Play for your community. That's why you're here, okay? Some people can't be here. Play for the guys who can't be here too. Play for Bay, St. Louis and Waveland. Does anybody have any questions about anything? Offense, defense, special teams. What? What? I love everybody. We love you too, Kyle. Of course, there's only so much love one football team can take. An hour later, as the team gets ready to run onto the field, the coach has this to say. So forget all the kindness and niceness right now, all that junk. Go out there and get after their behinds. Do you understand me? Okay, now we do want to win the football game. Okay, everybody touch somebody. Let's go. It's kind of hard to believe that out of the ruins of this town, just down the street from gutted houses and buildings, this thing has appeared. This movie set. Perfect football game. It's dusty now, with a pinkish sky. And under the stadium lights, everything's kind of glowing. And everyone showed up to play their part. The cheerleaders, the PA announcer, the marching band, or what's left of it. A single kid with a snare drum standing in the bleachers. Please join me in singing the national anthem. The opposing team, the long Beach Bearcats line up on the other side of the field. The moment I see them, my heart sinks a little. Not only are their twice as many of them, they just look so determined. Assistant Coach Keys sizes them up this way. Big. They came here on three buses. We need a minivan. Big difference. And they don't have junior high kids out there. We do not. Even the quarterback's father expects the Tigers to win tonight. They're missing so many guys that they'll have to play their good players twice as much. Their starters will play offense and defense. Guys will wear out. The Tigers get off to a great start. The first time they get the ball, they go on a drive that lasts half the first quarter and ends with a touchdown on a six yard run by Robert Labotte. I watched Tyler pass the ball off to Robert, knowing that Tyler pretty much moved back to town for this moment. And that Robert, who's living with him, separated from his own family, did too. Get out there. Go, go, go. On the sidelines, eight, ten Tiger cheerleaders are jumping around. It's more than half the squad. One tells me her uniform was the first thing she packed when her family evacuated. When the girls aren't cheering, they're consulting this big, elaborate chart they've set up in front of the bleachers. Celeste, the captain, explains, this is our cheer list, and we have 63 cheers on it. And every year we just take it and we add more to it. Okay, so like, what's 36? 36 is G O. Go, Tigers, go. And then what's 37? 37 is go. Go, go, go. And what's 28? Go, go. Go, Tigers, go. There's some similarity. Yes. They're very. The coaches are scurrying up and down the field, improvising to fill in for the key players they don't have, swapping kids in and out. Brandt, the MRE kid, is getting trounced out there. So the coach pulls him aside. Hey, Brent. Not bad, baby. Not bad, baby. Not bad. I'm ready to go. Chase, put somebody in there with a little more behind on them, okay? Yeah, I got manhandled. I know. We saw that. But the rookie players come through with some surprises. For instance, at the very same moment that the coaches are grumbling to themselves about where exactly freshman Alan Villalta is heading on the field, Volalta recovers a fumble. Oh, God. Volalta don't know where the. He is. Oh, damn. He just made a play. He just made a damn play. By the end of the first half, It's Tiger seven, Bearcat six. Good job, Walt. That a boy. Good job. The home bleachers are pretty packed by now. And the thing I realized when I start talking to people is that this is the first time this town has gotten together since the hurricane. One of the first people I meet, Gary Yarbrough, doesn't even have a kid on the team. I'm just out here just trying to see who's still here and who's still in town and visit with the other folks and kind of see who. How everybody's handling everything and dealing with everything. Is this the first time you're seeing a lot of folks in a while? Yeah, some of them, yeah. Because, you know, with the curfews and. And nothing open in town, there's really no place to go to see anybody. As I walk through the stands, the one thing people keep telling me is what a normal night this is, what a relief it is to do something normal again. But talk to anyone for more than a couple minutes, and what you hear next is just how far from normal everything is. They're worried about flood insurance and FEMA trailers and whether they'll have jobs. I ask one man, the booster club president, what the highlight of the game is so far and he nearly starts to cry. Down on the field, the Tigers are playing better than anyone had expected going into the fourth quarter. The score is 21.6. Tigers comfortably leading. But then in the last five minutes of the game, everything falls apart. The Bearcats star player, Tremaine Brock rushes for a touchdown. They miss the extra point, so it's 21:12 two minutes later, with just three minutes left in the game. Brock sprints 55 yards to the end zone as the Tiger coaches watch helplessly. That's it. He's gone. Stop. It's a two point game now, 2119. The Tigers are still leading, but Long beach has the momentum. And they only need a field goal to win. The Tigers are completely exhausted. Many have been on the field the entire game, the kickers limping. Alan Villalta, the ninth grader who made that great play, is on the sidelines with an injured knee. The Tigers get the ball back their last possession, but they can't even manage a first down. They punt it away, and there's still plenty of time for Long beach to score. Hello to the third. Don't run up behind. Don't worry. Don't worry about the first. Everything you got right now. Come on, Jason. Be ready to drop. The Bearcats start to drive again. They cross the 50 yard line into Beihai territory. The clock is running down. Coaches are screaming. Jason, be ready to drop. Here we go. Here we go. The place is going nuts. I can honestly say this is the only football game I've ever been to where it really did seem to matter who won. Earlier, I felt bad taking sides against the Bearcats. Their town was hit by the hurricane too. But now I don't know what I'll do if the Tigers lose. Their town was hit harder. They're the underdogs. They have to win. And then they do. They stop the Bearcats. It's over. Shake it up, shake it up, shake it up. The clock runs out and the place explodes. 21:19, Tigers. It's every corny sports movie come to life. People streaming on the field, hugging players sprawled on the ground. All these people in this rect town ecstatic over a football game. Assistant coach Jeremy Turcotte. I think next to getting married and having my baby, that's about the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life. Hey guys, listen up. We'll let you go. I know we got to get home. Coach Comprada. Never been more proud, okay, in my coaching career. Never been more proud in a group of guys in my life than right now. Love you guys. I love you guys. Take tomorrow off to you on Wednesday. 3:30. Be up at 3:30. Okay, everybody touch somebody. Great job, fellas. Great job, fellas. Break it down. Bay, St. Louis and Hancock county is still under curfew. Ladies and gentlemen, after the game, you need to go home as soon as possible. And just like that, the place clears out a half hour later. The only people left are the coaches still reliving the game. Luke, one of the assistants, is on the cell phone with his brother in Alabama. They had the ball with about a minute and a half left, driving with no time outs. And we sacked them and no time left. But I just want to call and tell you that, man, I'll call you tomorrow sometime. I just wanted to holler at you real quick. I love you, brother. Bye. Bye. Of all the coaches I met here, Luke seemed the most discouraged about everything. He'd lost his house. He sounded disheartened. In the morning, he told me that when his contract is up in May, he'll probably leave here. But now his mood is different. And you know, we play next Friday night here and you know, it's not like the town's gonna be back to normal next Friday night. So, I mean, they're still gonna not have anything. There's still going to be a curfew. And, you know, I mean, this just. Just. It starts it. I mean, if you lose tonight, it's like, you know what? You go home and you're sitting in a trailer and you have no AC and you. And you lost a football game. But, no, it's a little easier to go home and sit in a trailer with no AC when you just won a football game that nobody gave you a chance to win. Before coming to Bay St. Louis, I felt the way I think a lot of us feel when we see these places on tv. I didn't understand how you go back to a town like that, to all that loss and live there in the middle of it. What are you going back there for? And how do you even begin to get over it? Watching The Tigers win 21:19 completely outmatched everyone together, cheering them on. I knew the answer. It was one of those things, times where you're doing your job and you're like, oh, my God. I just feel lucky that I am here to see this. And everyone in town came out because no one had done anything. And so it was like everyone just. You know, like, you'd just gone through this huge tragedy, and now they're in the stands and, you know, I don't know how they cobbled together a band. There were some bands there that were cheerleaders and they were moving forward. I mean, that's like. The coach was basically like, I've got kids here wanting to play football, so let's give them something to feel good about. And it did. And I think I would have cried if they had not won. I think you probably cried when they did win. No. Do you know how? Just some stories you remember. Mm. I know it's cheesy. I'm sorry. No, but it's hopeful. You're right. You're right. Well, thanks for talking to me about this. Thanks for asking me. Hopefully we'll get in touch with Coquina and Kayla. I would love that so much. And I'm gonna see if I can find anybody. Okay. Well, if anybody knows these folks, Our number is 323-248-1488. Have them call us. I should put this on TikTok. They're way better at that. Yes, please do. Like finding people. I could probably put a post up today and find them by tomorrow. Oh, you should. I may do that when I like, for this weekend when the show comes out. All right. Yep. Bye, Lis. Okay. By the Dream is a production of Little Everywhere. Give us a call on our tip line, 323-248-1488 if you have any stories and coming in just a matter of days, the Dream plus we're doing an ad free version of the show. We'll keep giving you lots of information about that, but it starts in just a few days. Okay. By Foreign Checking off the boxes on your to do list is a great feeling. That's why a State Farm agent is there to help you choose a coverage option that's right for you. Whether you're getting a new house, car, boat or rv, helping protected is important. And State Farm is there to help you choose the coverage you need. 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