Curtis Pleasant, 46, still gets emotional when he remembers the day he and his family were airlifted from outside the convention center in New Orleans.
When he returned this year for Mardi Gras and to participate in a documentary, Pleasant noticed the bushes he was pushed up against were still bent over.
"The hotel where we stayed was a block from the convention center," he said with tears in his eyes. "I didn't want to be there. I don't want to live that no more."
In Louisiana, Pleasant worked for two things: pay the bills and get high.
But the night they got here, he had a flashback of another time of his life and decided he didn't want to live that life anymore. On September 9, he will be clean from drugs for a year.
While the Pleasant family didn't think much of coming to Utah, they are finding that they like it. He said they weren't planning on staying to begin with, but now they are going to make Utah their home.
Their son, Curtis Jones, 26, and daughter, Shankia Jones, 26, are living with them here in Utah. Four of their other children are living in Louisiana.
His wife, Gwen, 47, likes the mountains and the cold air. But she is not too keen on the ice and snow. She is even happier since she found a stable job working at Citris Grill.
Curtis has struggled to find a permanent job, but he has always been able to find some kind of work.
"They got work here," he said. "If you ain't got a job, you ain't looking."
Slowly the Pleasants are getting used to their new surroundings, and while New Orleans will always be home, "There's life after New Orleans," Curtis said.