This is the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and it's a date that has special significance for one Brooklyn man. NY1 profiled his family two years after the storm, and our Roger Clark checked back in with him on Friday.
Alfred Tumblin showed me some of his fashion creations in the Bed-Stuy apartment he's had for nearly a decade. He came here with his family after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their home in New Orleans.
"My mom looked at me, and she was like, 'Why Alfred, where are we going to go?', and asking me," Alfred says. "I just looked at her and I smiled, and she knew immediately that it was going to be New York."
We met Alfred's parents eight years ago. The family was adopted by a local Katrina relief committee who helped them find a place to live.
"As a family, we were lucky enough to have each other," Alfred says. "I knew other people who weren't so lucky, you know. They were alone. They didn't know where their loved one were."
Alfred's parents went back to New Orleans around five years ago, but he decided to stay in Bed-Stuy. Now 43, he has published a book about his hometown and continues to design clothes with his mom for their Reinments of Power line.
"New York's culture is just so diverse, and it's just, it's a different world," he says. "It took some adjusting, but I did, and I just fell in love with New York."
Even though Alfred says he's quite content living in Brooklyn, he does get back to New Orleans from time to time. However, he says it certainly is not the same city he remembers before Katrina.
Recently, a relative found a photo of Alfred and his mom. It was emotional since the waters destroyed the family photos in their home.
"It just brought tears to my eyes to see myself, because I thought all of that was gone. Baby pictures. I thought I'd never see them again," he says.
Alfred says he and his family have always been survivors and always will be, but there's never been anything like Katrina.