Robert Lynn Green Sr.

Robert Lynn Green Sr. has lived in the Lower 9th Ward for more than 40 years. He evacuated briefly for Hurricane Katrina, but returned to Louisiana weeks later despite tragic losses.

Green recalls playing football in the street with area children, attending church with neighboring families and playing in the Lawless High School band during his youth in the Lower 9th Ward. “We were all the same family,” said Green. “We had family ties.” Green also remembers his granddaughters growing up in the area. They would walk and say hello to all the elders in the neighborhood.

In preparation for Hurricane Katrina, Green and his family, including his granddaughters and his elderly mother, planned to evacuate to Nashville, Tennessee. They ran into traffic, however, and turned back because his mother was ill.

The family sought refuge at the Louisiana Superdome along with other New Orleanians. According to Green, because his mother had Parkinson’s disease, the relief workers in the special needs section of the Superdome were not prepared to care for her. The family was told to return home and asked to come back the next day. Unfortunately, Green and his family were trapped in their home and could not return the following day for help.

Around four o’clock in the morning, Green’s brother woke him from his sleep to inform him that the water was rising. The family went to the attic and later had to break through the roof to escape the flooded home. “It was like we were looking at Lake Pontchartrain,” said Green of his view from the roof. The house floated from 1826 Tennessee Street to the 1600 block of Tennessee Street. “While we were on the roof, the house broke from underneath us,” said Green. They went from the roof of a house to the roof of a car. During the transition, Green’s four-year-old granddaughter was whisked away by the current and his mother—who had to be rescued and revived three times—died.

Soon after, Green and his family were rescued and taken to the Louisiana Superdome and flown to Nashville, Tennessee by his brother’s employer. After leaving the airport, Green went directly to the hospital and into surgery to treat his hand that was injured during the flood. Green was in Tennessee for 30 days. He endeavored to purchase a home and start a business in the new city, when he received word that his granddaughter’s body was found. Mr. Green halted his plans for relocation to Tennessee and moved toBaton Rouge, Louisiana. Upon his return to Louisiana, Green traveled to New Orleans and found his mother’s body at 1617 Tennessee Street where the home was pushed by floodwaters

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