By Scott Brinton
That's because Tulane sits in the heart of New Orleans, and like the rest of the Crescent City, the university was required to evacuate as Hurricane Katrina - a Category 4 storm - rapidly approached.
Klebanoff and Sanacore, both 18, of Bellmore, are among nearly a dozen Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District graduates who headed to Tulane this semester, only to return home.
Klebanoff, who graduated from Kennedy, flew down to Tulane with her parents and rented a car from the airport to the school. When she got to her dorm room, she turned on the TV and heard the news that Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans. "All of a sudden, it was coming," Klebanoff said. "You'd never have known a hurricane was coming." It was, she noted, a beautiful late-summer day.
Klebanoff and her parents piled into their rented car and made their way through one traffic jam after another to Houston, where they boarded a flight to New York.
Sanacore had driven to New Orleans with her parents. She also got the evacuation news on TV. She and her parents had a meal in the French Quarter and headed right back home.
When Klebanoff and Sanacore returned to Long Island, they felt terrible for the hurricane victims who were caught in Katrina, and so they went to work raising money for them. They started a small organization called Operation New Orleans and set up a Web site, with links to other groups that are helping in the recovery effort, namely Convoy of Hope, Habitat for Humanity and the Salvation Army.
They are also encouraging people to attend "A Taste of New Orleans," a fund-raiser at the Long Island Marriot, run by the Long Island Hotel and Lodging Association and Tulane University students.
Right now, Sanacore is taking a full course load at Nassau Community College. The freshman, who is on a pre-med track, plans to transfer the credits to Tulane in the spring, when the university is scheduled to reopen.
Klebanoff, who will study Spanish and international relations, is doing an internship at NYC & Company, the official convention and visitors bureau for the City of New York. She isn't worried about losing a semester's worth of classes. She has enough Advanced Placement credits, which she earned at Kennedy, to graduate in 3 1/2 years.
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
