BUFFALO, NY – The Canisius University Office of Campus Ministry will welcome Robert Green on Tuesday, November 17 at 4:00 p.m., as part of its Ignatian Values in Action lecture series. A survivor of Hurricane Katrina, Green will discuss his personal story of survival from August 29, 2005 and share how his faith in God allowed him to use the experience to teach resilience and spread hope. Green’s lecture will take place in the college’s Christ the King Chapel. The event is free and open to the public.
Known as the “rooftop rider,” Green was at his mother’s home on the day Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast. Within minutes of the levee breach, the home filled with water. Green, along with six other family members (his mother, a brother, a cousin and three grandchildren) escaped by punching a hole through the attic to get onto the roof of the house. But the raging waters soon lifted the house off its foundation causing the structure to float several blocks. Eventually, the house hit a tree and stopped but the storm continued. Green and his family formed a “human chain” to keep from being blown away while they spent the next seven hours waiting for help.
Green lost his mother and three-year old granddaughter in the hurricane. His story has, in many ways, made him the most famous resident of New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, the predominately African American lower- to middle-class neighborhood that was destroyed by Katrina.
For more information on Robert Green’s visit to Canisius, contact the Canisius University Office of Campus Ministry at 888-2875
One of 28 Jesuit universities in the nation, Canisius is the premier private university in Western New York.
