That's Thomas in the white shirt. I met him about three days after the storm, sifting through the rubble next to the slab that was his house. He's in a FEMA trailer now. I wrote a story about him desperately searching for childhood keepsakes of his daughter, Evelyn. Thomas's parents had lost all his childhood keepsakes to Hurricane Camille, and he was determined to not let Katrina do the same thing for his daughter. He stumbled across a DVD with all his daughter's baby videos on it. He was also looking for SpongeBob stuff, because she is a bit of a SpongeBob freak, as is evident by her costume choice. He managed to salvage a blanket and a few trinhkets. Thomas drove home for me for the first time the scope of personal loss from the hurricane. It was a bit of a wonderful circle seeing him again somewhere far away from the morning I found him dripping with sweat and digging through muck while a mixture of pain and disbelief rolled down his face with his tears. It was awkward too, I have to admit.
This photo by Joshua Norman