NEW ORLEANS -- Khari Lain's hometown is listed as Tyrone, Ga., a suburb on the southwestern edge of Atlanta, but Arkansas State's sophomore linebacker has returned to his roots this week.
"I'm not going to lie, it's cool being home," Lain said a few hours before ASU's first on-site practice Wednesday in preparation for for Saturday night's game against Louisiana Tech in the New Orleans Bowl.
Lain has returned to his birthplace plenty of times over the past 10 years, since Hurricane Katrina chased him and his family from the only home he ever knew. Now ASU's leading tackler, Lain was 9 years old when the storm sent his family and thousands of others scurrying across the South in search of safe havens.
At 8 p.m. Saturday, Lain will step foot onto the artificial surface inside one of New Orleans' most recognizable landmarks -- the Superdome -- for the first time since his family left. He watched plenty of games from the dome as a kid while cheering for the hometown Saints. He even played a few games on the field when the Saints let peewee teams run around the field during halftime.
Lain said he was about two days from playing in one of those games in August 2005 when reports surfaced of an approaching storm, but Lain remembers not thinking much of it. Storms come and go in New Orleans. Sometimes, he and his family would leave for a few days and return later to their home in east New Orleans.
"Mini-vacations," he said. "Usually, we go on these trips and we come back and everything is fine."
This trip never led home.
Lain, his parents and other family members climbed into a charter bus owned by Lain's grandfather and drove east to Atlanta, where his father had college friends and his grandfather co-owned a hotel. A trip that usually takes seven hours took a whole day, Lain said.
They stayed in the hotel for a month while watching the damage done to their hometown unfold on TV and hearing the news of the death of a family friend. Lain's grandfather, who stayed in New Orleans during the storm, didn't make contact with them for a week.
Lain's family home was right in the storm's path. It sat on Crestwood Road in east New Orleans, less than a mile south of Lake Pontchartrain and east of the inner harbor canal. The canal's flood walls were breached while the Lains were in Atlanta. Three weeks later, his parents returned to their home and found 8 feet of standing water.
"When you're nine and you think about the water, you're like, 'I just want to go swimming in it,'" Lain said. "But the thing that was hard for me was seeing the look on my parents' face and seeing how disappointed they were and how sad they were."
After a month, they moved in with another displaced family for about a year before settling down near Atlanta.
Lain, whose parents are from New Orleans, said it was tough not moving back, but he eventually adjusted. He attended Sandy Creek High School, where he helped the school win a state football title as a junior. After his senior season, he picked ASU over Army, Georgia State, Memphis and Tulane.
Lain said his father would return occasionally to make improvements to the family home, and some of his family members are planning to stay in it this week while in town for Saturday's game.
"It's still undergoing some maintenance, but it's good," Lain said. "Usually whenever I come to town I drive by it. It's the only thing that means a lot to me."
The Superdome does, too. Lain regularly attended Saints games growing up.
"When they were the 'Aints,' when they were real bad," he said.
He's getting to work out at the Saints' practice facility this week, and he'll get to play on the field again Saturday, 10 years after he left it.
"I was thinking about it on the way down," he said. "I realize that nerves are always positive nerves. Before any game I get a little bit nervous. But, it's all about me. If I do what I do in practice, it's actually pretty good."
Sports on 12/17/2015