A number of Stanford students and faculty will begin their school year with more than academic stress on their minds. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many are more concerned with the safety of their friends and family, and what lies ahead after so much has been destroyed.

“It’s hard to describe it,” said junior Brice Rolston, one of the many Stanford students directly affected by the storm.

Rolston lives in Mandeville, La., a town on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain across from New Orleans, but was at Stanford when the hurricane hit. Unable to communicate with his family, he immediately booked a flight to Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s capital, where he was able to communicate with his family.

Rolston spent the next week doing anything that he could to help out spending time to search for supplies.

“It was a total madhouse; you could not even get drinking water,” he said. “You take advantage of all the modern conveniences until you live without them for a few days.”

Rolston’s family was lucky. Though half the houses in his neighborhood had trees that had fallen through their roofs, Rolston’s house suffered no serious damage.

There were downed power lines in the road, trees that had uprooted and taken neighbors’ lawns with them, and very little water pressure. Because Rolston’s home was above sea level, there was little flood damage. Nearby homes located on Lake Pontchartrain, however, were simply pushed over by the water, the walls parallel to the lakefront collapsing.

Early on, several houses in the neighborhood were looted. Rolston’s family and the neighbors quickly set up their own security detail and patrolled the neighborhood with firearms. More than anything else, it was a tactic intended to scare looters away and the looting stopped after a few days.

For the week that Rolston was in Louisiana, he and his neighbors were constantly doing whatever they could to better the situation.

“In our community, the hurricane really brought us all together,” he said. “The bleak picture you see in New Orleans was somewhat countered by the people on the North Shore.”

Junior Julia Saladino had a somewhat different experience. Because her mother was used to New Orleans’ annual hurricane warnings, she initially did not want to leave the city.

At 2 a.m. on the Saturday night before the storm, Saladino’s brother woke her up and made her watch the news. When they saw the hurricane’s destructive potential, Saladino’s family immediately began packing and drove into Texas.

Shifting between the houses of several different family members, Saladino had to return to Stanford early for medical reasons since she could not see her doctor in New Orleans. Her family is staying in Texas indefinitely.

Because Saladino’s home is above sea level, it suffered little damage. “We are certainly one of the families that were very lucky,” she said. “I know so many people who lost everything in that storm and I can’t imagine how that must feel.”

Freshman Sarah Woodward and her family may not have been as fortunate. They were at their vacation home when the hurricane hit, and still do not know if their house weathered the storm.

“The hurricane completely transformed the area that I was in,” Woodward said. “It was not even recognizable.”

She said that everyone in the neighborhood was extremely supportive. They had no running water, electricity or air-conditioning after the hurricane, but three different people came with truckloads of supplies for them and their neighbors, two of whom were strangers.

Woodward said that being with her family immediately after the storm struck helped. She talked to some of her friends who had already left for college when the hurricane hit, but it was difficult to speak with them because everyone was already caught up in college life.

“It’s hard not being able to go back even at Thanksgiving,” she said. “A lot of my friends are not even coming back. I may not even see some of them again.”

Junior Zataia Richburg, who evacuated to Montgomery, Ala. before the storm hit said that it helps to try to go from day to day as normally as possible. She and her family are now in Cincinnati, Ohio, where they have been reading books, watching movies and talking to friends.

“I always knew my family was important,” Richburg said. “I was always wondering about [the] hurricane season before I left for school, what would happen if the big one hit. I’d rather be here with my parents and know that they’re safe.”

Originally from Louisiana, Jan Barker Alexander, assistant dean of students and director of the Black Community Services Center, has college friends that are still missing. When asked about the hurricane, she quickly rattled off the names of a number of people she knew here at Stanford who were affected in one way or another.

“The stories are endless,” she said.