Saturday marks the passing of four years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Some went back to start over but others chose to begin new lives right here in Arkansas. FOX16 talked to one woman who's found a unique way to give back to the state she says welcomed her with open arms.
On this anniversary of a storm that changed a city, Evelyn Cador can't escape the images or the memories. "We had seen some things in the storm, in the flood, and you can't help but think about it," she said.
She was with her husband and their granddaughter at the VA hospital where her husband was being treated when the storm hit. It left them stranded for five days with no food or water. When help finally arrived she wasn't prepared for what she saw when she left. "There were many bodies in the water, and people just looking dazed, trying to get to higher ground," she recalls.
A medical plane brought the Cador family to Arkansas. With a flooded home back in Louisiana and husband in need of medical attention at the Little Rock VA, she decided to stay and it quickly felt like home. "It's like Arkansas just opened up their hearts to us. Not just their home but their hearts too and I just appreciate that to the highest," she said.
She became a part of the community becoming teacher and even serving on the Shannon Hills City Council. She says it's a way of giving back. "If I can just do something for them," she said. "I can see that it really made a difference to the community, then I can do that."
Cador later found out the Shannon Hills city council went to help out in New Orleans after Katrina hit. When asked the biggest lesson she's learned in the past four years she said, "not to take life for granted, and it might sound corny, but be kind to people."
