CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It's been five years since Hurricane Katrina forever changed New Orleans and the people that lived there, since then both the city and the people have rebuilt.
Fleeing the storm, hundreds of families ended up here in Charlotte and many stayed, building new lives in the Queen City.
One of those evacuees restarted her life in Charlotte and says the community's open arms are helping her realize a lifelong dream.
Thea Winick-Turnbull and her son left New Orleans just hours before Katrina hit.
“I remember looking around the highway and seeing all the cars filled with people and animals, friends, family, kids,” she says. “I thought, ‘This is what life’s really about. When it gets down to it, material things are just that.’”
They rode out the storm at her mom's house in Ohio.
“Initially it seemed like a pretty bad storm, but then they said the levees had broke and I knew what that meant, and that was devastating,” says Winick-Turnbull.
That level of devastation meant that she and her family couldn’t return home. They’d be starting from scratch in Charlotte.
Her son, Royce, was just 11 years old at the time.
“I had to leave my friends and where I’d lived for so long,” he says. “I had to abruptly just leave and go to a new place.”
“Once I moved to Charlotte everybody was living this great life, and I went into a depression because none of my friends were living that way. They were all in trailers, had family members that had died, and I was trying to start this new life in Charlotte and yet I felt lost and very, very sad,” Winick-Turnbull says.
But the community immediately embraced them.
“It was unbelievably helpful,” she remembers. “I had a tremendous amount of support from complete strangers.”
A private school helped pay Royce's tuition and Thea got a job running a local gym.
With all the changes, she had to put her dream of owning a gym on hold.
“I remember walking in and thinking, ‘I don't know anyone here. I don't have any clients.’ I still wanted my own club, and I thought, ‘I don't know how I’m going to get that done, but I am going to find a way,’” she explains.
Five years later, Metro Fitness is under construction. The upscale fitness club will open in Myers Park next month.
“I'm just overwhelmed this is actually coming to fruition. It’s hard for me to believe and I get emotional,” she says.
Those she works with aren't surprised at all.
“I marvel at what she’s achieved, how she’s integrated herself into this community,” says Sheri Gursin, a client who’s been with her for the last five years.
Thea’s son Royce is also awed by all his mom has accomplished.
“I hope I can be as strong as she is cause she’s unbelievable, an unbelievable person I’m glad that she’s my mom,” he says.
Now, Charlotte is home.
“I call Charlotte home now, but my heart is always in New Orleans and always will be,” she says.
