A new life begins here

Sitting next to a row of luggage, Bionca Sykes, 26, cradled her son

on a bed in the Burbank Ramada Inn and wiped tears away as she talked

about the house and the dog she and her family lost in Hurricane

Katrina.

Sykes, her husband Alex, 28, and their two children, Alex Jr., 7,

and Blake, 3, are among the thousands of New Orleans residents

displaced by the disaster.

They are currently living at the Ramada Inn after they came to be

near Bionca Sykes’s sister, who has taken in several other family

members displaced by the hurricane in her North Hollywood home.

“I can’t even explain it,” Bionca Sykes said. “It’s like a

nightmare and eventually I’m going to wake up and be back home.”

The family evacuated just before the hurricane hit, but like many

New Orleans residents who had participated in previous hurricane

evacuations, they expected to be able to return to a mostly unscathed

home after the storm passed.

“They said we’d be back in two or three days,” she said. “They

didn’t expect the levees to break. I left my dog behind with food. I

can’t even talk about it.”

The Sykes family, along with Bionca Sykes’ parents, and her

85-year-old grandmother, Earline Nocentelli, piled in their car and

made the trip to California.

“I’m still hanging in there,” said Nocentelli, sitting on the

couch in the hotel room.

Bionca Sykes is also faced with the task of trying to comfort her

two sons.

“My kids cry every night,” she said. “They miss New Orleans, they

miss their home, they miss their dog. I feel helpless that I can’t

help what they’re crying for.”

Alex Jr. is currently attending Lankershim Elementary School in

North Hollywood.

“It’s not his old school,” his mother said. “He’s trying to

adjust.”

Alex Sykes has been trying to find work -- in New Orleans he was a

supervisor of a team doing sewer and drain cleaning work.

Sally O’Steen, a friend of the local family members, has been

trying to help out with community connections by finding job

interviews for Alex Sykes.

“That’s the role I’ve played, to try and open some real receptive

doors,” she said. “Their moral courage is being tested daily. It’s

hard to go out and get a job when you don’t have the clothes or the

resume with you.”

The Red Cross is paying for their room at the Ramada Inn, but it

will only lasts until Oct. 2.

“It’s such an emotional stress, I don’t know where I’m going to go

with my family,” Bionca Sykes said.

Their home was insured, but she said the insurance company has

been less than eager to pay their policy.

“They’re going to want to fight to pay,” she said. “They didn’t

hesitate to take my money, but now they’ll hesitate to give it? Until

they pay, I can’t do anything or get a place of our own.”

The Sykes’s housing dilemma has added stress to an already taxing

situation.

“They’re looking for a fresh start,” O’Steen said. “It’s very

difficult to achieve when you don’t know where you’re going to be

staying week to week.”

Despite her family having lived in New Orleans for generations,

Bionca Sykes said her family hopes to be able to make a new home in

the Burbank or Glendale area.

“I love it, its beautiful here,” she said. “If you have to start

life over again, you want to be able to be comfortable with where

you’re starting at.”

She also said the warm and generous reception she and her family

received from local residents added to her desire to stay in the

area.

“People are so generous here in Burbank and Glendale,” she said.

“You tell them you’re from New Orleans and they’ll give you the

clothes off your back.”

Watching her home devastated was unbearable, however, she said.

“It was really emotional to see my city like that,” she said.

“Watching the people of my city suffer like that.”