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Hurricane Katrina: "Disaster relief is my next job in next life" says Utica woman

By By MEGAN KOSKOVICH

Story Created: Aug 27, 2010 at 1:15 PM EDT

Story Updated: Aug 27, 2010 at 1:15 PM EDT

(WKTV) - NEWSChannel 2 is looking back on Hurricane Katrina, five years later. Megan Koskovich has the story of a Utica woman whose experience was so inspiring, she knows what she wants to do in her next lifetime.

Just months after Hurricane Katrina barreled down on the Gulf, Sharon van Kuren headed south to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She says when she first arrived, she was completely overwhelmed, "when we went into work the first day there were like 400 people in line just waiting for services and it was that way everyday," she said.

For 12 hours a day...Van Kuren worked to help refugees get utility assistance and make evacuation plans. To hear the plight of the people she was helping made her see life in a new way, "for me it was the best thing I ever did. It made me appreciate life as it is."

She recalls some of the frustrating points of her trip, such as dealing with dishonest people trying to make an easy buck off of people's situations.
"Landlords who had places for evacuees to go to were scamming the system in some ways, charging outrageous rents with outrageous deposits knowing people didn't have this money."

Van Kuren says she found the trip so inspiring she's already planned what she wants to do in her next life, "in my next life, my next career, I would probably do disaster relief, I really like that."
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