KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -
Seven years ago, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans as a Category 3 storm. After the storm ravaged the South, one university moved north, to Kansas City, to reopen for students. Those at Grantham University are talking about what's happened in those seven years.
Seven years ago Wednesday Grantham University, headquartered just outside of New Orleans, was underwater. Today, it continues to thrive in its new home base of Kansas City.
"We had basically everything was underwater - there was flooding, no power," said Lori Turec with Grantham University.
Just inside Grantham University, located at Zona Rosa, sits a computer covered in dirt. It is a daily reminder of what happened seven years ago that changed the online university forever.
Immediately following Katrina, 300 employees gathered their loved ones and all they had and headed to KC. After all, it's an online university - students needed grades, coursework and guidance, and it couldn't wait.
"They had to act very quickly - almost miraculously - be able to make that transition up to KC, get back online and be able to help those students," Turec said.
Since relocating, the majority of those that moved have gone home to the Gulf, but Grantham University is staying put.
"We feel like we've really been embraced by the Kansas City community. We really do love it here," Turec said.
All but five of the 300 employees who temporarily moved to Kansas City have returned to the Gulf.
"We didn't realize how bad it was going to be," Rachel Colon said.
Colon was one of thousands whose lives were changed by Hurricane Katrina. She and several family members fled to Mississippi ahead of the storm, but were hit hard anyway and trapped in a house for three days. While Colon and her family were ultimately OK, they'd lost touch with the outside world and didn't know how bad it was back home.
"It went from a (Category) 3 to a 5 overnight," Colon said. "I'm thinking everything is normal and I just have trees down. I had no idea the devastation, flooding, amount of people who didn't make it. I had no idea."
An employee of Grantham University, Colon's place of employment was also devastated. Plans were furiously under way to relocate the online school ASAP.
"It worked enough. I got a text message. It had a date, a time and an address. It said you need to be in Kansas City at this address on this date," she said.
So Colon left, also leaving behind her family, her friends, her home and her life.
"It was very hard for me, but I left. I thought we were going to be back in a few months. A few months turned into seven years," she said.
Now Colon, still working for the hometown university that brought her to Kansas City said she plans to stay at least for now.
"As of right now, Kansas City has welcomed us. It's been open - they gave us a second family when we lost our first one so, as of now, we're good. We're going to stay here for a little bit."
Colon said she's been in contact with her family down in the Gulf Wednesday, and so far, they're weathering Isaac just fine.
Grantham officials said it has a large number of students in Tropical Storm Isaac's path and said the next several days will be spent checking in on them and doing what they can to help.
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