 Kellie Joseph surveys the remains of her burned down house. Tulane medical students helped fix it.
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For one New Orleans family, the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina was only the first blow in a couplet of losses. Two years after the storm, a fire burned Kellie Joseph's nearly-renovated house to the ground. Tulane medical students are spearheading an effort to rebuild the family's home for a second time.
Joseph and her seven children lived in the Ninth Ward before the storm. Like many other families in their neighborhood, destruction left by Katrina's floods forced Joseph and her children to relocate outside of New Orleans. For the past two years, the family has been living in a four-bedroom Baton Rouge apartment. Their return was expected to be less than a month away when, early in the morning on Sept. 23, Joseph got a phone call.
"It was indescribable," Joseph said about receiving the bad news. "We were so excited to move back in, and then my aunt called and told me the house was on fire. I wasn't expecting it to be burned to the ground."
Joseph soon learned that despite her hopes for the best, the house had been completely destroyed. The family later learned that the fire began when a stolen car parked in front of the house was doused in flammable fluid and torched. Although the car was a significant distance from Joseph's house, the volume of lighter fluid caused the strong flames to reach the building. Nearby houses separated by lawns were also singed.
A group of first-year Tulane medical students learned about the tragedy soon after.
"Somebody in our group, Tim, he found out about it because he went to a church service and they mentioned it," medical student Alison Smith said. "He called a friend of the family and got put in contact with the lady whose house had burned down."
A small group of medical students has since been helping the Joseph's spread their story. They've alerted local media to the tragedy and created a Web site, www.hopeingrace.com, through which outside groups can donate.
"We've been meeting with the family, just trying to determine how best to help," Smith said. "I guess a big part of it is we really want to learn more about the Ninth Ward and actually help this community itself. We've made a few trips out there; we talked to the family and everything. We've just kind of talked about what they want to do. I guess our big goal is going to be more like publicity and just helping getting this out there, letting people know what has happened."
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