Lawrence native Joy Weroha fell in love with the city of New Orleans during a Mardi Gras visit. Three months ago she moved there.

“The people there are wonderful and the city has this really unique heartbeat to it,” Weroha said. “I started working there and setting up my life and the next thing you know, I’m back up here.”

Thanks to Hurricane Katrina.

Weroha, 28, and a next-door neighbor she became friends with, Julie Lause, 32, loaded up their cars with their dogs and other belongings and managed to evacuate New Orleans before Katrina struck. They drove to Lawrence and are staying with Weroha’s parents.

Today, Lause, an eighth-grade reading teacher at a new charter school in New Orleans, is driving to Houston after receiving word that as many as 40 of her school’s students have been evacuated to the Astrodome. In the car with her are more than $250 worth of games, toys, books and other supplies she plans to turn over to the refugees. She bought the supplies with her own credit card during a shopping trip a few days ago.

Lause also is taking a few boxes containing decks of playing cards she and Weroha obtained Monday in a donation from the Isle of Capri Casino in Kansas City, Mo., where Weroha once worked.

Julie Lause, inside car, and Joy Weroha, lift a heavy duffel bag full of books into a car as the two loaded supplies they will transport to the Astrodome in Houston, TX. The two friends, next door neighbors in New Orleans, left the city ahead of the hurricane and came to Lawrence where Weroha's parents live.

“Those people are sitting in the Astrodome with nothing to do,” Laus said.

Lause plans to stay in Houston for a week and then return to Lawrence. She thinks it will be at least two months before she can think about returning to New Orleans.

Hurricane aftereffects

The Gulf of Mexico states of Louisiana, Mississippi and parts of Alabama were devastated by Katrina, but the hurricane’s aftereffects continue to be felt nationwide, including Kansas and Lawrence. Throughout the weekend street corner fundraisers have been held for Katrina’s victims and donations have poured into the Douglas County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Local Red Cross executive director Jane Blocher says she thinks public support for hurricane victims will surpass what happened after the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

“This has affected a great number of people,” she said. “Even though the numbers after 9-11 were horrendous, now we’re talking about an entire city. It’s also closer to home.”

Blocher expected to know today how much money had been donated locally for the hurricane relief effort.

Whatever that total is, more money is on the way.

Several 9- and 10-year-old girls from Quail Run School spent Monday holding a bake sale to raise money for victims. They set up at the corner of Harvard Road and Goldfield Street and sold a variety of items from Rice Krispy treats to cupcakes. The girls did all the baking themselves and by early afternoon they had sold out of most of the treats. By the end of the day they had raised $356.

Help for animals

Jon Haggard, a veterinarian with Eudora Animal Hospital, planned to leave today for Baton Rouge, La., where he will assist in the care of hundreds and perhaps thousands of animals that also have become Katrina victims.

“They said they are bringing them in by the truckloads,” Haggard said Monday. “Some of them are still with their owners.”

A triage unit for animals has been set up at a relief center on the campus of Louisiana State University, Haggard said. His trip has the approval of his co-workers and the Douglas County Veterinary Medical Assn. He also has been in contact with Louisiana veterinarians who are wanting outside help.

“They said they have the supplies and the equipment; the manpower and expertise is what they can use,” he said. “We’ll pick up the slack and see what we can do.

Haggard is going to Louisiana with his father, Jim Haggard, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., who is a Red Cross volunteer, and his brother, Kelly Haggard, a biology teacher at Perry-Lecompton High School.

They have rented a recreational vehicle and loaded it with personal supplies so they won’t have to worry about finding a place to stay. The cost of the trip is being picked up by Haggard’s hospital and the county veterinary association. If anyone wants to help with costs they can call Wakarusa Veterinary Hospital, 843-5577, Haggard said.

Students helping students

The Chi Omega sorority house near the Kansas University campus planned to accept a new resident Monday night. A Chi Omega member from Tulane University in New Orleans was expected to arrive. Efforts are under way to find financial assistance so she can enroll at KU, said Jane Mosely, an adviser to the Lawrence Chi Omega house.

The newcomer is an architectural student, Mosely said. Because of Kansas laws, KU can’t waive the tuition costs, even though some universities in other states are doing that for students who had already paid enrollment fees at hurricane-damaged schools.

The woman’s parents had talked to Mosely and were unable to travel with their daughter.

“I said, ‘Send her up here; we’ll take care of her,'” Mosely said. “The girls are excited about having her here.”

Changing directions

Earlier this year Lawrence businessman Tom Van Holt launched an organization called Waves of Relief in an effort to help victims in southern Thailand who survived the tsunami that struck southern Asia late last year. Van Holt was putting together a plan to train Thais on computers, teach them English and assist them in other ways in rebuilding the area’s devastated tourism industry.

Katrina changed that. Van Holt and his supporters have now changed directions and are looking at ways to help the hurricane relief effort.

“All the attention has shifted,” Van Holt said. “This is in our backyard. I think the death toll is going to surpass that of Thailand.”

Van Holt, who was in Thailand when the tsunami struck and saw the destruction it caused, hopes that he can return to the Thailand project once hurricane relief concerns have been taken care of.