It has been quite a year for Ryan and Carrie Wallis and their children, Calvin and Zoe. Residents of New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina hit, the attorney and his family have settled into a new home in the St. Louis area.

The Wallis family had packed their minivan to leave New Orleans, before the tempest, for a visit to family in the St. Louis area for only a few days. They were to attend the funeral of Ryan's grandmother in Fairview Heights.

As they were packing, however, they found that Katrina's path had shifted, and it was heading for New Orleans. The hurricane became a reason for the family to get out of town quickly, before the highways became completely choked with evacuees.

Hurricane evacuations had been almost a yearly chore before Katrina. The storms would miss the city, or would lose most of their devastating power before coming ashore. But Katrina did not follow those rules.

After their impromptu evacuation, as they prepared for the funeral, the Wallis family watched television footage of Hurricane Katrina devastating their home city.

Soon they learned that their quiet neighborhood, near the southern bank of Lake Pontchartrain, had been filled with floodwater. The school attended by their fourth-grader son was closed indefinitely.

And the New Orleans offices of the law firm where Ryan Wallis worked were closed, with the lawyers relocating to Texas and Mississippi. The family had to face the fact that life would not be back to normal anytime soon.

The Wallis' would later find that they had lost most of their possessions, and their home would have to be gutted. Of the losses, Carrie said “the worst was the family photos.”

The family was not hopeless, despite their losses. They received an outpouring of support from family, friends, and many people they had never met.

“I was amazed at the generosity,” Ryan said. People gave them abundant supplies of clothing, furniture, money and personal items, and one woman offered them indefinite use of her home.

One major concern for getting back on their feet was the fact that Ryan, who had practiced law for three years in New Orleans, did not have a license to practice in Illinois or Missouri. Getting a new start required a law firm to help him through getting one or both licenses.

Fortunately, the Edwardsville-based law firm of Burroughs, Hepler, Broom, MacDonald, Hebrank & True saw both a good fit in Ryan Wallis and a way to lend a helping hand.

The firm offered him a position on a team litigating product liability and class action matters, an area in which he practiced in New Orleans. “Finding employment was the key to being able to move the family,” he said.

Senior partner Larry E. Hepler noted that the firm had hired eight new attorneys from graduating classes on Sept. 6, 2005, and was not looking for more when they learned about Ryan's plight.

After meeting and interviewing Ryan, it was clear to Hepler that he was an outstanding young attorney. “The firm was very pleased to offer Ryan a position and excited that he decided to join us,” Hepler said.

“Sometimes there is a silver lining in those dark clouds,” he added. “In this case, we are pleased to be in a position to be a silver lining for Ryan and his family.”

Wallis has since passed the bar examination and received his Illinois license to practice. He awaits results of his Missouri bar exam.

The Wallis family recently purchased a home in Belleville, near other family members, and they are settling well into their new lives.

“Although we miss New Orleans at times, we like it here,” Ryan said. “This is a good place to live and work.”