Stacy Moritz lost her newly renovated home and nearly everything she owned to Hurricane Katrina. But two years later, she says the storm was, in some ways, a blessing in disguise.

"Things are just things. That's one thing I've learned," Moritz said Tuesday in a telephone interview from her new home in Carriere, Miss. "Everything is replaceable except for life."

The experience also strengthened her faith in God and man.

"As long as you trust in God, He'll give you what you need," Moritz said. "We were all provided for in more (ways) than we could ever imagine."

Moritz, her fiance, her aunt and uncle, her grandmother, her cousin and his girlfriend all fled Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina, driving more than 1,600 miles north to stay with relatives Buford "Mac" McDaniel and his daughter, Deb Petres, of Rapid City.

Eventually, the group settled in here, finding jobs, attending school and setting up house.

And while they say they loved Rapid City and are grateful for the Black Hills hospitality, all returned to the Gulf Coast area within a year, homesick for the familiar and lonesome for family.

"It kind of broke our hearts, because we loved it up there," said Tina McCarthy, Moritz's aunt, who now lives in Covington, La. She and her husband even bought a house in Rapid City. "The area was so beautiful, and the people were so wonderful. But, you know, this is our home."

Tina and Andre McCarthy, Tina's son Chad Grob, Chad's girlfriend Lauren Brown, Tina's mother Irma Morris, Moritz and her fiance, Stephen Jordan, reached Rapid City on Sept. 2. Brown's mother, Adele Peralta, arrived Sept. 8 after riding out the hurricane in a small boat.

By October, all had jobs except for Brown and Moritz, who were in school. The Red Cross, Salvation Army and kind-hearted strangers provided housing, furniture, cash and more. That generosity was tangible when the McCarthy clan packed up to move home in May 2006: They left in a caravan of two U-hauls, four vehicles, and two cars on trailers.

"We came up there with nothing, and we left with a lot," Moritz said. "The hospitality and just the love that everybody showed us was really awesome."

About 325 Louisianans came to South Dakota because of Katrina. Jeff Stingley, director of Sioux Empire Red Cross in Sioux Falls, estimates that one-third of them stayed here.

The rest, like Moritz and McCarthy, found the ties to place were too hard to break.

Back home in the South, they've settled into lives that are different but slowly becoming "normal." The McCarthys moved to Covington, La., about 30 miles by bridge across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. Tina is back to publishing "The Parish Provider," a local magazine, and Andre works for a coffee company.

They live minutes away from her brother and her son, who has since parted ways with Lauren Brown. McCarthy said Brown and Peralta returned to Louisiana, but she has lost track of them.

The McCarthys' old house in St. Bernard Parish is a mere shell, one of many in a virtual ghost town. Streets that once housed 50 families might now be home to four, she said. Some areas still look "like a bomb went off."

Oddly, the only things McCarthy salvaged were some antique crystal wine glasses.

Moritz and Jordan moved to Mississippi, about 45 miles from Covington. Moritz's grandmother, Irma Morris, is in poor health and now lives with Moritz's mother, Karen. Two years ago, Moritz and Jordan had just finished renovating her childhood home in St. Bernard Parish, one of the areas hardest hit by Katrina. Seven feet of floodwater left the house full of mud and mildew.

One thing was spared: The only photo Jordan had of his mother, who died when he was a toddler. Amazingly, the framed photo was at the bottom of a stack of pictures left on the floor. The other pictures were ruined, Moritz said.

Moritz has no interest in living in St. Bernard Parish again. Katrina literally sucked the life out of the area, though it's slowly recovering; but flood levees are still inadequate, Moritz said, and she's happy to be living 68 miles away, above sea level.

Jordan works as an electrician. Moritz quit working to help care for her grandmother. FEMA paid the couple's rent until last May, when they bought a modified mobile home. That was a near miracle, Moritz said, since real estate prices have skyrocketed since the storm.

Although both Moritz and McCarthy say their new homes are relatively safe, hurricane-wise, hurricane season is still scary. "We're always watching the weather," Moritz said.

"We like to stay close to home," McCarthy said. "I think now we appreciate what home is."

They miss the beauty and peacefulness of South Dakota. Moritz even misses the snow. Mostly, they miss their family, friends and neighbors in the Black Hills, whom they say they'll never forget.

"We just really want to thank everybody for what they did," McCarthy said. "If it wouldn't have been for the people in South Dakota I don't know where we would have ended up."

"They created a stepping stone for our future, a better future than I think we would have had without the hurricane," Moritz said. "I'm grateful for that."

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com