Melba Leggett

Originally Melba Leggett did not want to evacuate. She heard Mayor Nagin’s evacuation order on television, but decided with her husband to stay home and ride out the storm. Early the next morning, as Ms. Leggett watched the local news, she looked at the route the storm was taking and knew that she and her husband, Baxter Barnes, had to leave. After convincing her husband that they needed to flee the city, they packed their valuables and headed to Baker, Louisiana where they stayed with one of her cousins. Ms. Leggett and her husband went to bed the next night and were awakened by her cousin who showed them news footage of the levee break. Later that evening, Hurricane Katrina ripped through Baker and they lost electricity and water. The next day, Ms. Leggett’s daughter who was living in North Carolina called and made plans to travel to Louisiana to get the family. She and her husband returned with her daughter to North Carolina on September 4, where they lived until August 2008. 

Ms. Leggett and her family have lived in the Lower 9th Ward since 1977, when her mother bought their home from one of her cousins. She remembers that everyone in the neighborhood was “like family” and all of the similarly aged kids hung out together.  In her case, it was very literal; Ms. Leggett had six cousins that lived on Tennessee Street.  Everyone knew everyone. According to Ms. Leggett, the preacher that lived next door to her baptized her son, and the preacher that lived further up the street officiated over her daughter’s wedding. She remembers children growing up and coming back to live in the neighborhood.

Ms. Leggett loved where she resided while in North Carolina. She remembers strangers giving her clothes and shoes (she and her husband had left them behind) following the disaster. While she is thankful for the kindness shown to her by those along her travel, Ms. Leggett longs to return to the neighborhood she calls home.

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