IT’S BEEN THREE YEARS since
Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States, destroying many parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, extending into the Florida panhandle, Georgia, and Alabama. It was an extraordinarily powerful and deadly hurricane that carved a wide path of catastrophic damage and inflicted a large loss of life. Given the extent of the destruction, the word “rebuilding” takes on new meaning for residents of the impacted communities. For some, it is rebuilding families and friendships torn apart by the devastation and loss. For others, it is rebuilding flooded homes and businesses. For all, it is rebuilding lives that would be forever changed. For some local tennis players, rebuilding included returning to a team that focused on much more than winning a tennis game–they focused on winning back their lives one ball at a time.

When Katrina hit in August of 2005, Catherine Fradella had just become president of the Northlake Women’s Tennis League, a league of over 600 players encompassing Mandeville, Covington, Slidell, and

Hammond, Louisiana. As these areas were evacuated, Catherine and 18 family members were forced to leave their homes and head for safer ground at a hotel in Hoover, Alabama. What was normally a 5-hour drive took over 12 hours amid traffic and stranded evacuators on the roadsides who had run out of gas.

“The experience is one that I never want to repeat again in this lifetime. While we were away, we discovered that many of our family’s homes were destroyed, buried under some 20-plus feet of water,” Catherine explains. During the 12-day evacuation stay, she comforted horrified family members and organized family dinners each night. She saw the initial destruction of her community in devastating pictures emailed to her from various friends and community workers, including her son-in-law, a rescue recovery diver and SWAT support with the New Orleans Police.

While passing the time in the hotel room, Catherine decided to check on the status of her tennis friends and families, only to find out that many of their homes were also destroyed. Knowing that she couldn’t do much to repair homes from her Alabama hotel room, Catherine decided to take action by getting her tennis league up and running again. “Initially, my feelings were to give many of these women time away from what was at hand during the recovery process: tearing down sheetrock, pulling up flooded tiles and carpet, tearing down cabinetry, and scrubbing. I felt that I could help my tennis mates by bringing back some social tennis, some normalcy to commiserate with other gals knowing that we are not alone in this disaster.”

And so for ten days from her hotel room and then again after returning home, the project had begun. First, she attempted to determine which courts were immediately available for play, knowing that many were flooded and covered with trees. She contacted as many of the league captains and cocaptains as possible to reach over 500 players, despite the challenge of power outage and inoperable phone service in many areas. Local tennis club pros helped out a great deal in the organizational process of getting back onto the courts, sometimes giving up their courts used for lessons and their livelihood so that the women could just get out there and play tennis.

Tennis pro Damon Romero of Cross Gates of Slidell explained that tennis was a big relief from the stress of the storm and the monotony of dealing with home repairs. “People were ready to get back out there. It was good for me, too, to get back to the courts and teach.” The Slidell facility opened one month from the day the hurricane hit, thanks to employees who worked to clear fallen trees and repair broken net posts. But not all of the facilities were this lucky. Courts at some clubs, like Beach Club in Metairie, were under water for over a year. Romero explains that many of the residents of St. Bernard Parish, an area that was wiped out completely by Katrina, moved to the Slidell area and joined his club.

The Northlake league was back up and running by the second week of October 2005, but the camaraderie of league tennis took on much greater meaning. Matches got off to a late start as everyone was too busy checking up on each other. Pictures and stories were exchanged, and there became a networking of, “‘I know a plumber,’ or, ‘I have an extra generator,’ or, ‘I’m cooking tonight. Come over and eat,’” Catherine recalls. The league season wouldn’t count for trophies and the rules for defaults and substitutions were waived, but the teams got together nonetheless to network friendships and businesses–to help each other on the road to recovery.

Similar tennis league experiences echo in other areas struck by Katrina. Sharon Scheib, current President of the Crescent City League, another New Orleans area league, explains that the primary impact was losing players and captains. “Many were transferred for work when businesses relocated and others focused on repairing their homes.” By the second half of the season, the Crescent City League played matches again, but with an “anything goes” approach to league rules. Matches wouldn’t count for points, but players could count on matches for a break from the aftermath.

The damage from Katrina extends beyond the homes, tennis courts, and communities and into the personal lives of many ndividuals. Relationships are strained in the stress of the disaster and families are displaced. Catherine reports that she had over 40 people living with her on and off while rebuilding their homes and lives in the year following Katrina. During the stressful time, her husband left and divorce followed. Her story is not uncommon. “Katrina affected me personally, and although my home was not affected, my personal life was. The tennis world has brought me serious comfort knowing that my teammates are here for each other 100%.”

After taking a year off as league president, Catherine returned this past year to preside over the Northlake Women’s Tennis League. As we approach the three-year anniversary of Katrina this month, she reflects on how important tennis and her teammates have been in the aftermath of the disaster. “I’m still in the recovery process from what I feel Katrina played part in damaging. With tennis as my outage and the friends I have made along the way on and off the courts, life continues to move forward.”

And so as the Gulf Coast of the United States approaches another hurricane season this year, the Northlake Women’s Tennis League will continue to move forward with another league season of tennis, hoping that the only challenge they’ll face this year will be on the court–one unlike the challenge they faced in 2005.