If starting a new school year was not difficult enough, imagine being uprooted from the home you grew up in and thrown across country in order to escape life-threatening floods from Hurricane Katrina. But junior Daniel Smolkin did just that.

“My dad woke me up early Sunday morning and said that we’d leave in a hour and a half,” Smolkin said. “We packed up the house and everything, locked the doors and then brought in the plants.”

Smolkin, along with his father and grandparents, ventured across country to California to stay with his uncle, AP Psychology teacher John Hebert, where Smolkin’s mother and brother later met them. “Unlike a lot of residents of New Orleans [they] had the resources to get in a car and fly out here,” Hebert said. “It’s good to be with family.”

Smolkin and his family were lucky to get out when they did, although they had no idea just how awful Hurricane Katrina would become. “I was expecting for it to blow over, and I wanted it to blow over,” Smolkin said who was planning on going to visit friends from Tennessee.

Since the entire hurricane was such a terrible experience, Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) and Gunn tried to make the transition as easy as possible. For example, students must have certain shots before they be admitted into the PAUSD, but the district slightly altered some of their rules for this unique situation.

According to the memo sent around the district entitled “Emergency Enrollment of Students,” the Central Attendance contacted the Santa Clara County Health Department to validate the District’s liability regarding immunizations of these students who are from out of state and therefore are most likely without paperwork. The Health Department then provided the minimal health requirements. Families are required to turn in the necessary documentation within two months or each student must receive the six required immunizations.

Principal Noreen Likins was happy with the flexibility allowed for the out of state students. “When John first came in and mentioned he had family coming from New Orleans, he asked if Smolkin could possibly enroll here,” Likins. “I said absolutely. Sometimes it makes sense to have students close to where their home is, close to where their family is.”

Smolkin has enjoyed his new environment. “It is different here at Gunn from my old school,” he said. “[Gunn] is twice the size of my old school and spread out.”

Though Smolkin is at a new school and has had to make all new friends, his attitude remains positive. “It’s nice to have a change,” Smolkin said. “When you think about it [I’m] an upperclassman and in two years [I’ll] be off to college meeting new people.”

Even though Smolkin has found somewhere safe to stay away from the floods, there are many others still out there who are not as lucky. “[Letting Daniel in] was a very small gesture of help for such a huge tragedy,” Likins said. “If there are other students who need enrollment we will do our best to accommodate them.”

Smolkin and his family realize that they are fortunate compared to many other families. “[We] had the resources and can take steps to do the best with the situation,” Hebert said. “But there are still a lot of people that don’t even have enough money for transportation.”

With New Orleans’s reconstruction moving slowly, Smolkin and other survivors of Hurricane Katrina are still a long time away from going home.