Thirty-year-old Asna Rooshi was born in Hyderabad, India, and has lived in the U.S. for eighteen years. Before Katrina, she lived in an apartment in Chalmette, New Orleans with her husband, Syed Shamiuddin, and their 13- and 8-year-old daughters, Ruqaya and Rabia. The family lost everything in the hurricane and its aftermath, and are currently living in Houston.

Asna describes her family’s reaction to the storm:

Voice of Witness: May I ask how you’re feeling right now?

Asna Rooshi: Right now, we lost everything and we don’t have anything. Anyone can’t think how we’re feeling. Let’s hope everything [will be taken care of by] the government, because property, and our home, and everything has been lost—my husband’s job, especially my children’s school, which is most important and they lost it and they are also very depressed. Still, me too. I have the words from the dictionary—beyond imagination. If you think, “What does ‘beyond imagination’ mean?”, go and look at New Orleans. Or go look at Chalmette. So when you go look over there—the houses—then you can understand. That’s it.

VOW: Have you been back home and seen this?

AR: Yeah. I went to my home. My husband first went over there and he said that “You will not be able to see... Make your heart stronger to see your own home because it’s not a home anymore.” First he went and when he came back and I said, “Still, I want to see it.” When I went there, it was ruined. Everything is gone and as I said, it’s beyond imagination. You cannot even think if water comes in someone’s home that anything can happen like this. Let’s hope… We’re thinking, the government has helped us a lot—like these places.

VOW: What has helped you?

AR: The government. The government is helping a lot and still we are hoping from it. Like some people, we don’t have flood insurance. So let’s see what happens to that, and we are hoping a lot from it.

VOW: The government you meant. Ok.

AR: Yeah, I mean the government, because if someone doesn’t have insurance then what they will do? So in that people, we are among them.

Besides for their material possessions—their clothes, furniture, and jewelry—the family lost all of their family keepsakes: their children’s school certificates, all of their family photo albums, and their home-made Persian rugs and curtains.

Asna describes her living situation in New Orleans, the aid that her family has received in Houston, and her hopes for the future:

VOW: So you’re in the city…

AR: Yeah, I’m in the city Houston and I’m really… I was not expecting that Houston people will cooperate like this. They have helped a lot at the time where we needed. So like food, kitchen items, comforters, pillows, all kind of things. They have helped a lot. We didn’t thought that people will donate things like that. They even donated their children’s—bring their stuff in Ziploc bags, like toys. They bring crayons, pencils. Even the small children, their parents told them, “The New Orleans people have been going through such a disaster,” so even small children donated such things. I went in one of the… maybe it was a disaster center or something. Over there I saw volunteers are helping and I saw one of the ladies, she came from New Jersey and I talked to her and she said that she’s helping, she’s volunteering. And she was talking to the people. She was only helping emotionally. And it helped me a lot because until that time I didn’t talk to anybody. And when I was sitting and thinking, my children got scared. “What happened mom? Why are you so quiet?” And then I talked to that lady and maybe I cried. She gave me emotional support and that helped me a lot and thanks for the people that they are helping in Houston. Maybe all of the United States. The people have helped a lot. We are hoping the same from government because now it has been past one-a-half months to the Katrina. If it comes 28th it will be a complete two months, but now as I said, I don’t have flood insurance on my home. And I’m expecting from FEMA and SBA to help me a lot. And I own a property and I was renting an apartment. I was a tenant and because I owned the property, I didn’t move in it and I was buying the stuff and I was keeping it in my store room, so that when I would move I would decorate my new home. But I was not knowing to my knowledge the things I’m buying will be ruined in a fraction of a second and it’s like whatever I buy from all the big stores and malls and everything, it’s all gone.

VOW: Was this an apartment you were going to rent out to somebody or you were going to move into this apartment?

AR: Actually what happened was I bought the property in January. But from the year 2000 to this 2005, still I was in an apartment. So I bought the property just in January, but I didn’t move because my tenant was pregnant so she said give me a few months and I went on vacation and this year I went to vacation in India. It was my brother’s marriage and I said, OK, when I come back from India they will move. So she said, “Give me the first week of September” and I said OK. And I came on 17th of August and I was having luggage was with me was 8 pieces of luggage… And I didn’t even open that suitcases. And all my brother’s wedding dresses, my children’s party wear dresses. It was unpacked. I can say it was thousands of dollars which I didn’t even opened it and all the items I brought from India, which I don’t get here. All my clothes, which were brand new, which are party dresses. And maybe if I buy only one dress here it’s 250, 300, 500 cost here. So I didn’t get any of those here. Let’s see what happens. And now we are in a two-bedroom apartment in Houston.

VOW: So the house you described, just so I have this straight, were you guys living in a house and you were going to move in an apartment?

AR: No, no. I was living in an apartment. It was a duplex and I bought the property that was also a duplex and we were moving in September, but I was buying the stuff from last year that when I moved in my home, and I’ll buy my home, I’ll put these vases here. I buy a new dining table but I didn’t fix it because I didn’t move. I don’t want to put scratches here and there. I thought that way. But when I saw my store room, when I saw my warehouse, all the stuff was outside, it was like someone had taken a chopper and chopped all the things, and you cannot find which is a dining table, which is a flower vase, which is your clothes. Like standing over the piles of a junkyard. You have only tears. My children want to go there but I said you will not be able to see things that were in our house. I thank god that still my life is safe.

VOW: May I ask what your dream is for the future? Your dreams?

AR: Everybody has a dream, but still I hope at least I get my home back, and I don’t say that I want my things back. At least, at this time, it would be a help from the government that will make our dreams come true. And we can work hard and we can do whatever we want, and my dream is I should have a good education for my children, because we were in St. Bernard parish and their schools are very good and my children are missing school and me too, I’m missing my place. I want them to have a good education and obviously a good home.