By Kerri Pepoy,Staff Writer
Storm, flood hastened academy student’s move

HEBRON – Terrence Chatmon is remarkably relaxed and jovial for a 17-year-old who was forced from his New Orleans home two months ago to escape Hurricane Katrina and since then has been attending school some 1,600 miles from home.

“I go with the punches,” said the Hebron Academy student on Friday. “I’m getting through it much better now.”

Aug. 28 is seared in his memory, the day Chatmon and his mother, Donna, left the Big Easy and drove to Texas to stay with his sister and brother-in-law in Houston as Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city. They left most of their belongings behind.

Chatmon had already been preparing to leave New Orleans to begin school in September at Hebron Academy, having shopped with his mom during the summer to purchase school items. He never expected to leave the way he did.

“I came here in a rush, on Sept. 10,” he said. “My head was still down there.”

During his first few weeks in Maine, Chatmon worried about his house and his family members, some of whom had been rescued from the roofs of their New Orleans homes as the floodwaters rose and then spent more than a week at the Superdome. His relatives said they witnessed awful things inside.

“They saw people being beaten up and a police officer shot in the head. I thought, why are people doing things like that?” Chatmon said, shaking his head.

Eventually, his relatives made it to Houston, where 17 people ended up being squeezed into in his sister’s three-bedroom home. “You get to the bathroom before anyone else, get to the dinner table before anyone else, get to the refrigerator before anyone else,” he said.

Some of his relatives are now living in a new home in Houston, Chatmon said.

Meanwhile, the 6-foot-5-inch teenager is adjusting pretty smoothly to life in what he calls a “nice, relaxing state.”

“It has a natural setting that I like. I’ve seen animals I’ve never seen before. Last night I saw a skunk, and I couldn’t believe it. And if I see a moose, oh my,” he said.

Chatmon was born and raised in New Orleans, where he played high school basketball and football and got good grades. His basketball coach suggested he consider a postgraduate year at a prep school to gain more exposure for college coaches.

He researched prep schools on the Internet, eventually applying and being accepted to Hebron Academy. His sister Vonni “flipped out” when she heard he was going to Maine, he said. “She was like, That’s too far, that’s too far.'” She eventually accepted his decision and bought him a winter coat, but not before calling the school’s admissions office several times to ask questions.

Chatmon is a manager for Hebron Academy’s football team while studying subjects including psychology, algebra and postgraduate English. He plans to try out for the school’s basketball team.

“If I don’t make the team, maybe I’ll go snowboarding,” he joked.

Sitting nearby, Andy Stephenson, dean of students and the basketball coach, said, “He’ll make the team.”

When word spread on campus about Chatmon’s ordeal, faculty and staff pitched in and made sure he arrived to a room with sheets, towels and toiletries. They also raised money to help Chatmon buy new clothes.

He has made friends easily, although some have been stumped by his Southern slang. One term is “huhbra,” which Chatmon says is akin to saying “I understand” or “Really?” to someone.

“It depends how you use it,” he said. “When I said it to people here, they were like, Is that Southern stuff?'”

Chatmon said he is not homesick but wonders what will become of his hometown. His mom lost her beauty parlor business in the hurricane and is now living with a friend in Baton Rouge, where Chatmon said he will spend Christmas break. “I talk to her four or five times a week. She acts like she’s not worried about me, but she is. I can tell.

“She sounds happy and excited about her new life in Baton Rouge. She had been wanting to get out of the city, to tell you the truth,” he said.

His mother went to their house in New Orleans two weeks ago and found it badly damaged by floodwaters. She salvaged some belongings and sent Chatmon a few of his clothes.

Chatmon plans to apply to colleges and wants to continue playing basketball. He is looking at colleges with business and information systems programs and is considering being a business consultant, which would mean he would have to forsake New Orleans anyway for brighter opportunities, he said. “I’ve been planning to leave New Orleans and go away to school. There’s really nothing there, business-wise,” he said.