20051215 - Three months ago Carmen Lusignan, 33, lost everything. Her
house, her job, her entire life was wiped off the map by Hurricane
Katrina. A single mother of two young girls and a longtime resident of
Algiers, La., Lusignan and her two daughters Caroline, 2, and Hillary,
9, camped in a tent on a stranger's front lawn after Katrina hit.
Desperate for stability, she called her cousin in Tampa and asked her
to help her start a new life. Lusignan now works as a bank teller in
Tampa and has a new apartment. Her two children are happily enrolled
in local Tampa schools. But now Caroline's father wants the toddler to
come home. He shared custody of the toddler and has visited her
several times since Lusignan moved to Tampa, but now the Louisiana
National Guardsman has taken legal action demanding that Lusignan
return to New Orleans with her children. He says taking the kid out of
state violated the custody order, so now dad wants them to move back
to Louisiana or get custody. Lusignan asks, "How am I supposed to go
back? What am I supposed to go back to?" She is not alone; several
hundred other families are facing this unprecedented legal dispute in
the wake of Katrina-forced relocations. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
