“I’d go through my parish [St. Bernard] and see all the homes and the stores and the banks and nobody hardly at all in there,” she remembers. If she needs food, Christofi takes a ferry and drives 25 miles to the nearest grocery store. Two gas stations serve the entire parish. Stop signs substitute for broken traffic lights. Mail must be delivered in care of friends and family, as there is no post office.

The home where Christofi lived for more than 40 years is uninhabitable. Her 40-year doll collection, carefully placed on high shelves, washed away, along with the photos she left hanging on the walls. “Never in a million years” did she think the water would rise so high. The roof now leaks, the foundation is questionable, and contractors who could help are expensive and difficult to find. The $500 in AFT relief money will go toward paying for some of it; Christofi says that “every little bit helps.”

At Delgado, Christofi has some semblance of normalcy. Senior nursing students resumed classes in October and 160 graduated in January, having attended class at other institutions and satellite campuses. Christofi says 17 of the 24 students in her program returned, and one new student joined them. Christofi’s building is fine, after minor flooding, although the phones still don’t work. Colleagues are getting by in temporary housing with family, friends or FEMA, wherever they can find it; at least one spends two hours driving from Baton Rouge.

“They say that if it doesn’t kill you it makes you stronger,” says Christofi. “Sometimes I wonder.”