Evacuees 7 nd jobs far from Katrina territory

For many, returning to the daily grind is amajor step toward rebuilding their lives Cover story

Just days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Casey Fos, a lawyer in Kenner, La., realized it would be months before business in the city recovered.

So Fos jumped on the phone and began cold-calling law rms in Dallas, where he and his family had evacuated, in hopes of nding a job. He got an interview. He dashed out to buy interview clothes — his wife, Andrea, hurriedly hemmed the pants at 10 p. m. — and got the job the next morning.

“ Itwould be much, much tougher if I didn’t have a reason to get up in the

morning, take a shower and go to work,” says Fos, 42, now a

lawyer with the rm Jones Day. He is living with a cousin in

Dallas, and hiswife, who resumed a teaching job, is living in a

college dorm in Hammond, La., with their children, Jakob, 6,

and Jonas, 3. “ Itwould be much tougher if I didn’t have a paycheck coming in.”

In a rst major step toward rebuilding lives torn asunder by Katrina, a number of evacuees left unemployed and homeless are nding new jobs. Some are doing work much like the jobs they left behind, while other storm victims are learning completely new skills and vowing that they will start a new life elsewhere.

Up to 400,000 jobs may have been lost in the affected states as a direct consequence of Katrina, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Of ce. But the report also states that the large- scale relocation of evacuees

By Barbara Gauntt for US TODAY Same job: Ginger Hitt, 49, a Cracker Barrel waitress in Jackson, Miss., H ed Slidell, La., when Katrina hit.