Former Notre Dame Swimmer Helping With Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, September 14. A two-time team MVP at Notre Dame University, Tim Bohdan is taking part in relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A resident of Houston who swam for Notre Dame from 1982-85, Bohdan is working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and will be in Baton Rouge for at least the next 30 days.

In his duties, Bohdan is helping with evacuations, providing shelter, reconstruction, food distribution and locating temporary housing. Bohdan's primary role is to build temporary housing for evacuees and to help those individuals move into their new homes.

"In many cases, we will have to construct temporary cities using travel trailers and mobile home parks," Bohdan said. "It's grueling work here. My shortest work day so far has been 14 hours long and there are no days off for the next 30 days."

Bohdan's employer, IBM, was one of a number of companies hired by FEMA to assist with the flood and destruction that occurred in and around New Orleans.

"Many of the evacuees have absolutely nothing," Bohdan said. "They have no family, no money, no home, no clothing, no job, no place to go, etc. The term ‘dire straits' would describe many of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. We're putting people back into a stable living situation so that the evacuees can begin the arduous process of reconstructing their shattered lives."

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