Katrina's Lives Lost:	Smooth, Ersell 1972-2005
			Smooth, Kendricka 1987-2005
			Smooth, Kendra 1989-2005
			Lewis, Doneika 1990-2005
Submitted By: 		N.O.V.A March 2006
Source:			Times Picayune 

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Although she worked as a housekeeper at a local hotel, Ersell Smooth's
dream was to open her own child-care center. She had plenty of experience
under her own roof: She was one of 18 children, number 14 in a brood that
grew up playing in the streets of the Lower 9th Ward.

Even as an adult, she welcomed the company of children -- her own and those
of her siblings. From the time they were toddlers, her nieces Kendricka
Smooth, Kendra Smooth and Doneika Lewis followed their Aunt Ersell just
about everywhere she would go. Friends and relatives say Ersell was
happiest when she was surrounded by the girls and her own daughter, Rolisha
Smooth.

"Ersell was very easygoing. Whatever she could do for somebody, she would
do it," said Gwendolyn Sterling, another of Ersell's nieces.

"She was an angel to me," said Ersell's friend of 15 years, Zelda Dennis.
"Ersell was a great mother, sister and friend. She treated me and my own
child as if we were family."

Ersell, 33, took great pride in the accomplishments of her young nieces.
Kendricka graduated last spring from Lawless Senior High; she and her 16-
year-old sister, Kendra, were working at McDonald's to try and save money
for college. Kendricka hoped to attend school in Atlanta. Kendra wanted to
travel to New York someday and become an attorney.

All three girls shared a passion for music. Doneika, 15, dreamed of one day
becoming a professional dancer.

"They were typical teenage girls who always wanted to be together," said
Kendricka and Kendra's mother, Iris Smooth Smith.

As Hurricane Katrina approached, Smith gave her daughters permission to
take shelter at their Aunt Marion Smooth's house with Ersell, her boyfriend
Terry Derrell and her daughter Rolisha.

"They always took turns staying by each other's houses," Smith said. "Our
family was never too far apart from each other."

Iris felt she had no reason to worry; her sister Marion's house never
flooded during previous storms.

This storm, as we all know now, was different. As dawn broke on Monday,
Smith received a frantic cell phone call from her daughters. They told
their mother that water was rising in the house. They were standing on the
kitchen counter; their Aunt Marion soon told them they should all head to
the attic.

"Kendricka just kept screaming and then all of sudden the phone went dead,"
said Iris, who barely managed to escape her own home on Royal Street. "It
was a beautiful day when you looked outside, but the water, the water just
came out of nowhere."

Everyone made it safely to the attic, but feared no one would know they
were there. Rolisha and Terry were the only ones who knew how to swim; they
jumped from the attic into the water, made it to the front door of the
house and safely outside. Rolisha grabbed hold of a gutter and attracted
the attention of Michael Knight, who cut a hole in the roof and helped
Marion escape the attic.

By that time Ersell, fearing they would become inundated before help
arrived, had decided to attempt an escape. She jumped from the attic into
the water. Kendricka, Kendra and Doneika did the same.

"That was them, always following their Auntie Ersell," Marion said. "They
told me they were going to try and get to a taller house, but when they
jumped back down the water was already too high for them to make it."

Ersell and her three nieces drowned before they could reach the door.
Ersell's daughter Rolisha now lives with her father in Houston; the rest of
the Smooth family, once so tightly clustered in the 9th Ward, is scattered
across several states.

Marion Smooth's house was destroyed, as were most of her neighbors' homes
on Flood Street.