I think God does everything for a reason, and that (hurricane) brought all my family together. So we were sleeping in shelters, sleeping on chairs and tabletops. But you know, my mom always made sure we had the most comfortable table, the most comfortable chairs. – Utah cornerback Boobie Hobbs

Hope that the storm would be merely a scare had disappeared. Hurricane Katrina was already leaning angrily into the land when word came to evacuate.

“We didn’t want to leave,” says Utah cornerback Boobie Hobbs, a New Orleans native. “But they told us immediate evacuation. The warning alert told my family we had to go.”

When they returned, Hobbs recalls, it was “coming home to no home.”

Aug. 23 marks the 10th anniversary of the weather event that devastated one of America’s most unique cities. Hobbs was only 10, too young to know all the ramifications, but old enough to now recall sleeping on tables and chairs inside shelters.

Half a lifetime and 1,500 miles away from those bleak days, Hobbs recently signed an apartment lease in Salt Lake. He plans to bring his two kids and their mother west to escape the dangers of a state with the nation’s highest incarceration rate. The switch from New Orleans to Salt Lake is true culture shock. One is an in-the-moment and seductive city, where all the senses are indulged. The other is orderly and clean, with an outdoor vibe.

“Complete opposites,” Hobbs says. “In this city, I could lose my wallet and somebody would mail it to my house with everything in it. It’s not like that in Louisiana. Everywhere you go you’ve got to lock your doors and look over your shoulder. I don’t want to be in a place where I’m scared. Even if I’m in a mall with my kids, I’m scared that somebody will start shooting.”

Utahs Boobie Hobbs addresses hairstyle, nickname

After the hurricane, his father and other relatives had to gut their home and rebuild. They lived in three different shelters for six months, then in a trailer in the front yard while renovations proceeded.

“I think God does everything for a reason, and that (hurricane) brought all my family together,” he says. “So we were sleeping in shelters, sleeping on chairs and tabletops. But you know, my mom always made sure we had the most comfortable table, the most comfortable chairs.”

Initially the family was moved to Lake Charles, 205 miles west, to live in a civic center. It could have been worse. At no time did Hobbs have to stay in the smelly, frightful conditions of the Louisiana Superdome.

The family briefly moved to Alabama for job opportunities, but returned during his high school years. Throughout, he never stopped playing football — on the lawn with his cousins, in organized youth leagues, and on his high school team, where he had nine interceptions his senior year. That too was a family affair. Hobbs was one cornerback, while his cousin manned the other. The safeties included another cousin and a close family friend.

“So that was comfortable,” he says.

But moving across country to play college football wasn’t. He missed friends, parents and his brother and sister when he arrived last year in Utah. Soon, though, the dry climate and canyon breezes of Utah won him over.

“Coming from New Orleans to Salt Lake was tough,” says the Ute sophomore. “There was nothing really to do. I’m not a big outdoor person; I’d never seen snow. It’s very hot in New Orleans, but here it’s nice weather. Calm. I love it up here.”

His original plan was to become a homicide detective, having lost friends at a young age due to violence in the city.

“They didn’t get to grow up,” he says. “I wanted to make sure that stops.”

But since moving to Utah, he has become interested in being an athletic trainer. He says if he’s “blessed enough,” he’d like to play football professionally. He chose a good place to prepare, as the Utes are renowned for developing NFL-caliber defensive backs.

Listed on Utah’s initial fall two-deep as a backup nickel back and starting punt returner, Hobbs says his main goal is to build a good life for his children.

“As a father, you have to look out for your kids,” he says. “It’s not about you anymore.”

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That’s considerable maturity for a 20-year-old.

“I’ve had to mature quick,” he says.

True. But he knows this: There is no storm he can’t survive.

Email: rock@desnews.com; Twitter: @therockmonster; Blog: Rockmonster Unplugged

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