Southland Family Survived Hurricane Katrina -- And A Lot More

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com)  —  Hurricane Katrina forced thousands of people to start their lives over -- the ones lucky enough to live through the devastation.

One Southland family -- who survived the ordeal -- remembers what it was like escaping the natural disaster.

The Franklins often think about what life was like ten years ago.

They look at old pictures today. Their house was in ruins. Clothes destroyed. Furniture was tossed around like toys.

They had to evacuate to a hotel in Dallas and realized from news reports -- they were never going back to the life they knew.

KCAL9's Erica Nochlin says the Franklins dealt with the heartbreak almost immediately.But Hurricane Katrina wouldn't be the end of their worries.

"Watching them rescuing people out of the water, it was just heartbreaking," says Tirzah Franklin.

"We went from one day having a house, three cars, clothes, tennis shoes to the next day in a church, looking through old t-shirts and shorts  to wear," says Jamar Franklin.

More than worrying about material things, they were concerned about staying in hotels -- at the same time having to care for a 1-year-old child, their daughter Marley, who was suffering from sickle cell anemia.

"She had to take medications twice a day and it needed to be refrigerated so we had to worry about keeping it on ice," says Tirzah. "It was pretty tough, it was really tough, but I knew that we would survive," adds Jamar.

Marley is now 11 and not only healthy, she's an internationally-ranked golf star.

Nochlin says she owes her good health to a bone marrow transplant from little sister Maya -- born after the family settled in LA.

"I'm just really happy we both have the same blood," says Marley.

Maya concurs. "Makes me feel eally happy."

The Franklins moved to LA when Tirzah landed a job as a nurse. They never left.

The family does admit to missing the people, food and flavor of New Orleans.

"I just had to put my big city pants back on," says Tirzah.

Jamar sees positives.

"I love that there's no mosquitoes," he says.

But they are both thankful for the new home they've created here.

"It's been ten years, but going through Katrina, going through Marley's bone marrow transplant, makes me realize what's important in life," says Jamar.

While Jamar said he would hope to retire and return to New Orleans someday, he also said he would keep a home in Los Angeles, as well.