Zeitoun

When they wake, Kathy and Zeitoun hear that Katrina is now a Category 5 storm. Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), urges everyone to evacuate the city and head inland. Kathy thinks they should evacuate, but as a Category 5 has only ever happened three times before in the U.S., and never in New Orleans, Zeitoun isn’t worried. He agrees that Kathy should take the kids and evacuate, but he’ll stay behind to manage the job sites. Kathy understands his reasoning. Their business has properties and equipment all over the city. They’d be responsible for any damage done to property during the hurricane. Also, they have rental properties; Zeitoun wants to make sure their tenants and their buildings are alright.

A voluntary evacuation order is issued by Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco, but Zeitoun is determined to remain the city. The Superdome will be used again for evacuations, even though previous efforts to use it for this purpose failed. Kathy decides to leave as soon as the contra-flow takes effect--when all traffic lanes of every highway will flow out of the city. She decides to go to her family home in Baton Rouge. It will be close quarters, but the families haven’t been together in some time. She tries to persuade Zeitoun when the mayor again asks citizens to evacuate, but Zeitoun says he has to think of their properties, and leaves to start securing sites. When he returns home, Kathy has the car packed. She and the kids are ready to go. She tries once more to get through to her husband but Zeitoun is determined to stay, and so they part; Kathy expects to be back in New Orleans by Monday. Zeitoun then returns to securing the rest of their properties, watching as people head towards the Superdome for shelter. Kathy calls later, frantic. In her confusion, she’s gone the wrong way on the highway and, due to the overwhelming amount of traffic, hasn’t gotten far.

On the road, Kathy thinks about how nice it will be to see her family again. She has a complicated relationship with them, however, and there were times when they would argue about her beliefs and, more often than not, her hijab. Though her family was often confused by her conversion, there were times when her mother tried to help. Once, at the DMV, an employee tried to make Kathy take off her hijab for a picture. Kathy’s mom yelled at the woman, causing a scene, and Kathy was finally able to take the picture without removing her hijab.

Kathy was raised in a Christian home, and her best friend, Yuko, was as well. To Kathy’s astonishment, Yuko became interested in Islam. She begged Kathy to keep an open mind. Years later, things hadn’t been going well for Kathy. After her divorce, she was working two jobs and had a one-year old son. Yuko, however, seemed to have a relaxed, easy life. Kathy began thinking about Islam and borrowed some books from her.

One day, Kathy saw her pastor in the department store where she worked. She confessed her problems and thoughts about Islam to the pastor, and he told her that, come Sunday, she’d see why she needed to stick with Christianity. That Sunday, the pastor called Kathy to the pulpit and had her tell the congregation about her interest in converting to Islam. He derided Allah—though the word itself means God—and the Islamic faith, and declared Christianity to be the one true religion, though Islam itself accepts its relation to the other faiths. Disgusted with the pastor’s behavior, Kathy decided to convert to Islam.  

Hurricane Katrina has been upgraded to a Category 5 storm and is heading right towards New Orleans. Throughout the day, Zeitoun receives calls from clients all over the city asking for help to secure their homes. Zeitoun realizes that one of his carpenters, James Crosso, is still in the city. The two drive around securing as many properties as they can. Mayor Nagin announces the first ever mandatory evacuation, but Zeitoun doesn’t even consider it. He finally returns home that night and assesses the house for possible damage. He’s a builder, so feels confident that he can save his home. The only thing that really concerns Zeitoun is the possibility of the levees breaking. If the levees break, he thinks, there isn’t much he can do.

The hurricane hits just after eleven o’clock. Zeitoun finds himself running around the house looking for trash cans to catch leaks and stuffing sheets in broken windows. He thinks about how comical he’d look to Kathy. He’s been running around nonstop for hours, and the main thrust of the storm hasn’t even hit yet. Suddenly, Zeitoun remembers the canoe he bought from a client of theirs a while back. He wants to have the canoe ready, just in case, and so goes outside and rights the canoe. Kathy thought it was a stupid buy, and he wasn’t able to get the kids interested in it, but now Zeitoun’s happy that he bought the canoe. After hours of battling the storm, Zeitoun is exhausted, and finally goes to sleep.

When Zeitoun wakes up on Monday morning, he realizes that he’s slept through most of the hurricane. There is definitely damage, especially outside, with about a foot of water in the streets, but it’s nothing he hasn’t seen before after other storms. Kathy is in Baton Rouge and takes the kids to Walmart, where she witnesses desperate people stocking up on whatever they can get their hands on. She is barely able to grab the last package of flashlights in the store. Back in New Orleans, Zeitoun tries paddling the canoe around but the water is receding from the streets. He thinks about all of the downed power lines and decides to head home. He calls Kathy and tells her that the worst is over and to come home. It was already evening, however, so Kathy and Zeitoun agree to talk about her return the next day. However, later that night, Kathy hears the mayor of New Orleans on the radio telling citizens not to return just yet. In New Orleans, Zeitoun gets a call from Adnan, a family friend, who is traveling with his pregnant wife Abeer and has nowhere to stay. As they are in Baton Rouge, Zeitoun tells them that Kathy is also in Baton Rouge, and he’ll ask if they can stay with Kathy for a few days.

On Tuesday, Zeitoun wakes up and listens to the silence of the city. He thinks he won’t have anything to do now that the city is largely inoperable. After a time, he falls asleep again and dreams about his childhood on Arwad Island. Thinking about how he and his brother Ahmad used to swim all day in the ocean then lie on the ground, listening to its ebb and flow, Zeitoun realizes the something is off. The sounds he’s hearing are not the ebb and flow of the sea, but a steady flow, like the sound of a river.