Two years after Hurricane Katrina, many people you talk to are under the impression that those displaced by that catastrophe are all back on their feet now. That's normal. When was the last time you thought about the 1.69 million people who were displaced as a result of the December 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean? Whenever some disaster strikes, there is a surge of humanitarian assistance that generally parallels the surge in news coverage. When a disaster ceases to be “news,” the surges wane. We get back to the business of living. We forget. James and Gloria Bogan want people to remember that people are still affected today by Hurricane Katrina.

They should know. They're former residents of New Orleans, driven from their home just two days before Katrina made landfall. Two months later, when they were finally able to assess what was left of their home, they returned to what James called “a city under siege... like the day the Earth stood still.”

James has a brother in California, so they took what little assistance they could obtain from FEMA, rented a truck, packed it and their personal vehicle with whatever they could salvage, and headed west. Four days later, they arrived in Buena Park where James' brother put them up in a motel. The next day, they were referred to the Red Cross who then referred them to the Orange County Rescue Mission's OperationOC (OPOC), a relief operation established specifically for the evacuees of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

After very limited success in trying to access promised federal assistance, the Bogans found that OPOC was a breath of fresh air. “The people at OperationOC were so good to us!” Gloria says. “Everything that OperationOC promised us, they did! When we went out there, it was open arms. It was like we were not strangers.”

When the Bogans found an apartment in December 2005, OPOC was instrumental in getting them settled, providing rental assistance, a refrigerator, furniture, clothing and vouchers for food and gas. In the next weeks, James and Gloria both applied for and were awarded positions with UCI Medical Center, where they continue to be employed today.

The Bogans are doing okay now, but losing just about everything you own and being uprooted from the place you have called home for many years are not events that are easily forgotten. “People say, ‘You gotta get over it.’” Gloria recounts. “I'm still stressed out about Katrina!” But James and Gloria take consolation in their faith that God had His hand of protection on them in New Orleans and He continues to provide for them today. They want the readers of this article to know two things:

• God is faithful to His children. He saw them through one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, and put them back on their feet in California. No matter what happens, they trust Him to take care of them.
• “Katrina children” are still out there and still have a long way to go before the affects of Katrina are dispelled.

“We're still here,” James says. “We're still surviving.”