By Jim Fennell - New Hampshire Union Leader
JOHN SUDSBURY'S new office is the lobby of a hotel in Dallas. He is not sure when he'll be able to go back to his apartment in New Orleans and doesn't know what will be left when he does.
He'll tell you he's one of the lucky ones.
Sudsbury, a Hudson native who is the associate media relations director for athletics at Tulane University, left New Orleans a day before Hurricane Katrina unleashed its fury along the Gulf Coast. He spent two nights in a gym in Jackson, Miss., sleeping on the floor with no electricity, before busing to Dallas.
It wasn't until he got to his hotel room in Dallas that he found out that New Orleans was under water. He felt the overwhelming emotions we all felt. Only this was his home.
Sudsbury says he really didn't think about hurricanes and floods when he took the job at Tulane five years ago. When he got there, and heard the doomsday predictions that were made every time a hurricane came the city's way, he reacted with the same bravado most seemed to have.
"We almost joked about it," he said.
But this time Sudsbury, 34, knew the situation was different. So, after initially deciding to stick it out in his apartment near campus, Sudsbury joined the university's football team on a bus out of town Sunday.
"You know these things can happen, but you never think they will happen," he said. "But when I heard it was a Category 4 (hurricane), I knew it was going to be bad."
Sudsbury's two roommates decided to stay. He talked with them through the hurricane on Monday, but lost communication when the levees that protected the city broke and the waters began to flood. They fled their first-floor apartment into an apartment on the next floor and were stranded there for six days before being rescued.
Sudsbury, a University of New Hampshire graduate who got his start in the media relations business as an assistant in the UNH sports information department, says his roommates were able to salvage some of his belongings. He feels fortunate.
He says one of the Tulane coaches knew his life would never be the same even before the team left Mississippi.
"His house is a mile from a levee, and he knew it was done," Sudsbury said. "He had a duffel bag with him and said that was now everything he owned."
Two dozen Tulane players come from New Orleans; they watched with heavy hearts as people they know were shown on the TV crying out for help after being stranded for days at the Superdome.
It makes Sudsbury wonder why help didn't arrive sooner.
Thankfully, Sudsbury said, all of the players and coaches found out their immediate family members are safe. Now, somehow, they can try to deal with playing the season.
The campus has closed for the semester, but Tulane president Scott Cowen decided to allow student-athletes to continue to play sports this fall. The football team will play out of Louisiana Tech in Ruston, about 230 miles north of New Orleans, where its players will enroll in school for at least one semester.
"Our community needs hope," said athletics director Rick Dickson. "Our student-athletes represent hope for them. They will carry the torch and be the face, and display the name of Tulane University and the New Orleans community until we are able to come home."
The men's basketball team — along with the volleyball, swimming and diving, and women's soccer teams — will be at Texas A&M. The women's basketball team and the baseball team will go to Texas Tech. Rice will host the tennis teams, and Southern Methodist will be the temporary home for the golf teams.
Sudsbury is not sure where he will end up. He might move with the football team to Ruston, go to Texas Tech with the basketball team, or stay in Dallas.
Donations from families, friends and people who just want to help have been pouring into the hotel where the football team is staying. Contributions have included everything from food and clothing to toothpaste and calling cards, provided to enable players and coaches to phone their families.
Sudsbury says members of the football program almost feel guilty because they know they're doing a lot better than most people who were forced out of New Orleans and the other areas wiped out by Katrina. He said the team plans to bring everything it doesn't use over to Reunion Arena, which is being used to shelter evacuees.
He says he has been working 18 hours a day — from his makeshift office in the hotel lobby — trying to help make this undertaking possible. Maybe when all the students are enrolled in classes and settled in the places they will spend the next six months — or longer — he will have time to reflect on what has happened.
"I'm sure it will all hit me then," he said.
Sudsbury says the players and coaches are excited to represent Tulane and New Orleans, even it means doing it away from home.
"There are so many times when you talk about representing your school or your city, and sure it means something, but now it means so much more," he said.
Sudsbury's job is to spread the word of Tulane. By allowing the teams to keep playing, the university's president is showing there is still hope. Sudsbury is spreading that message and, Lord knows, the people down there need some hope.