Nearly a year ago, the three Andrews bothers and their sister were shocked to learn the jet evacuating them from flooded New Orleans was flying to Utah, a Western state with very few black residents.
Fast forward a year, and their bewilderment has eased but not disappeared. All four are still adjusting to life in a conservative state settled by white Mormon pioneers in the 19th century. They say economic opportunity and lower crime rates there are offset by subtle racism the black family encounters.
Clifford Andrews, 40, is perhaps the most upbeat of his siblings about life in Utah and sees the hand of God bringing them there after Hurricane Katrina.
"People in Utah don't know how to act toward black people," he said in his suburban rental home surrounded by lawn. "I personally believe that is my reason, to teach these people how to get along with people of color." A year after Katrina struck, its far-flung victims are still contending with the upheaval and disorientation.
The evacuation of New Orleans was chaotic. Some people escaped in their own vehicles to destinations of their own choosing. Others were sent in buses or planes to distant cities, sometimes without knowing where they were headed.
Invited by states or private groups, former New Orleans residents are now scattered across the country and most US states have at least some evacuees.
In this diaspora, Utah took in 679 mostly black Louisiana residents including the Andrews siblings. Before their flight to safety a year ago, the Andrews family, which lived in a few households on New Orleans' Hope Street, survived some harrowing days.
After Hurricane Katrina struck, they looted food to survive during several days in which they camped out at a supermarket parking lot above the flood waters. Sister Tanya, 45, and brother Larry, 37, both took boats in an effort to find help, although they said they were rescued only after a white woman waved down a helicopter.
When the Andrews arrived at a displacement camp outside Salt Lake City in September 2005, they expressed cautious optimism about Utah but concern about how the largely white population would respond to the new blacks moving there.
A year later, Larry Andrews is still filled with doubts. "We (blacks) used to live in Africa and we were moved to New Orleans and we had to adapt there," he said. "Now we are in Utah and we have to adapt here. We're tired of adapting."
Asked if his apartment living room with two computers, a television, a stereo and a boom box indicated a better life materially, he said: "What's in here, in my heart, I'm not. I'm confused. We were living better where we was."
Richard Walker, who oversaw last year's resettlement process for Utah, says despite wide cultural differences, more than half of those sent to Utah have started a new life here.
"Some of them have done pretty well and others of them have not had that good of an experience," he said. "There were some law enforcement issues with some of them, some of them were dealing drugs, some people were involved in other kinds of crime. One person tried to burn his apartment complex down because they evicted him."
But, he adds, "There are some really good stories about people who have just flourished here."
The US Census Bureau estimates that less than 1 percent of Utah's population of 2.5 million is black, far below the US average of nearly 13 percent. For those from New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz which had a two-thirds black population, the cultural and geographic contrast was especially stark.
"It was tough. I had to make attitude adjustments for myself," said Tanya Andrews who found a job driving a truck, work she did in New Orleans. "I'm one of the only black women driving a truck in Utah; you're in a man's world. It was tough for me to go into an all-white waiting room."
Like her two unmarried brothers in Utah, Tanya was initially concerned about romantic prospects. The divorced woman then met a man from New Orleans at the Utah relocation camp last September and they have since been dating.
CHANGING CULTURES: Larry Andrews, who is studying electronics at community college, struck up a relationship with someone evacuated from New Orleans, Lynn Lawrence, 42. As she hugged an oversized stuffed bear and dog, she complained about discrimination and said rebuilding a new life was hard. "Sometimes I'm so depressed, I cry a lot," she said.
Walker, who works for the Utah Division of Housing and Community Development, said many of the former New Orleans residents faced "huge cultural issues," including a higher rate of illiteracy or poor education.
"A lot of that has been resolved by the people who came here, you know, changing. They were willing to become part of this culture rather than their culture," he said.
Clifford Andrews, who is married with two young children and is studying to be a chef, said he hoped to stay in Utah through their school years. "Most look at the glass as half empty; I look at it as half full," he said.
Tanya Andrews is marking the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with a trip back to Louisiana where she hopes to persuade her mother to move to Utah. One brother also still lives in Louisiana; he heeded warnings and left New Orleans before the floods.