Katrina transplant mops up after Harvey with praise for his adopted city

Posted 5:45 p.m.

John Dillman, co-owner of the independent bookstore, Kaboom Books, spent most of Monday morning doing the same thing he did in his shop during Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath: he mopped.

Having spent 30 years building up bookstores in New Orleans, Dillman, and his wife Dee, relocated to Houston in 2006 after Katrina dealt more than $20,000 worth of damage to their main store.

The couple initially traveled back and forth between the two cities until they permanently settled down in the Houston Heights neighborhood in 2007.

As Dillman cleaned up the watery leaks in Kaboom Books caused by Tropical Storm Harvey, he thought back to how worse off New Orleans had been in the wake of Katrina — at least, on the humanitarian front.

“People felt abandoned by society,” Dillman said of New Orleans residents who ended up shuffled around shelters, or were

left stranded in their flooded homes. “I don’t think you’ll be seeing that here.”

Neighbors volunteering to rescue fellow neighbors off of rooftops and out of vehicles, local news media outlets keeping the city informed, and the warm welcome he and his wife received when they started over in Houston are evidence of Space City’s resilience and unity, Dillman said.

Kaboom Books remained opened, though a little soggy, on Monday.

Dillman said there’s no damage to the extent the shop suffered back in New Orleans, when Katrina’s wind and rain collapsed the roof and embedded pieces of a neighboring building in the store’s walls.

As reports start to come in of damaged property, Dillman knows the aftermath will be brighter.

“People are falling over themselves trying to help each other,” he said. “No one is going to be abandoned here.”