They fell in love with New Orleans in 1991.

And after repeated visits there, to determine if two New Englanders could become accustomed to life in that southern city, Kurtis Clements and his wife Ann Bragdon were hooked.

“There’s an exhilaration in New Orleans that’s palpable,” Clements said. “I’ve never experienced that anywhere else – its personality, its swagger. The only city that rivals it is San Francisco, but it’s a distant second.”

The couple obtained teaching jobs there in 1997 and bought a 100-year-old home in a section of the city known as Orleans Parish, six blocks from Tulane and Loyola Universities – and ten blocks from the nearest levee.

Because the house was in a higher area of the city, they weren’t even required to have flood insurance. But they purchased it anyway.

During the next eight years, they evacuated on four or five occasions, unwilling to risk remaining in their home with their young family during a hurricane.

But on each occasion they returned to find the home they love untouched by the water, undamaged by the wind.

At the end of last week, as predictions of Katrina’s destructive path became more ominous for the New Orleans area, the Clements decided to evacuate once again.

They secured a room in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where they planned to ride out the storm.

Since the family had experience in evacuating, they knew they had only a small window of time to escape without becoming trapped in interminable lines of cars all intent on escaping the city.

Their first indication of the massive exodus that was to come occurred at the gas tanks.

“I went to gas up my car at 7:30 on Saturday morning and regular gas was already out,” Clements said.

They took only a hour to load their minivan, packing a few days’ worth of clothes, some photo albums and toys and supplies for their children.

By 8 a.m. on Saturday, the couple, along with the rest of the family, Haley, age 6, Nate, 4, Grady, 8 months, and their new dog, Bruno, headed for Tuscaloosa.

They spent two nights there but by early Monday morning, after listening to dire weather reports on the radio, Clements and Bragdon knew they wouldn’t be heading back to the Big Easy any time soon.

With family in Maine and Massachusetts, they headed toward New England, to Clements’ family’s cottage on Brandy Pond in Naples where they had spent much of their summer visiting family and escaping Louisiana’s heat and humidity.

And the horrific images they caught on T.V., while stopped for a car repair in Virginia, confirmed they had made the right decision.

The family arrived in the Lakes Region Wednesday evening, exhausted, drained, but thankful to be safe.

They are worried about so many of their friends who chose not to leave.

One of them had decided to wait out the hurricane on the top floor of one of the city’s tall office buildings. But the Clements have heard that some of these buildings have collapsed and they are unable to get in touch with their friend.

“There was a complacency – a lot of people didn’t leave the city,” Bragdon said. “There’s no way to know who’s okay. There’s a devotion to the city that borders on the ridiculous – they just won’t leave.”

Grateful to be alive, uncertain of the fate of many of their friends, the couple also mourns the loss of the city of New Orleans.

“We love New Orleans,” Clements said. “It’s never going to be the same again.”

But they are concerned that even further destruction to the area could be forthcoming.

“September is the busiest hurricane season,” Bragdon said. “The other times we’ve evacuated have been in September. It’s not inconceivable that this could happen again.”

As they look to the future, Bragdon plans to enroll Haley in first grade at Songo Locks Elementary School, hoping they won’t require all the paperwork left behind and most likely lost forever in the fury of Katrina.

Clements intends to apply for a local teaching position.

So far, the couple has sheltered their children from most of the news and from the sobering pictures of the hurricane’s destruction. But they must decide soon how to handle their questions – like Haley wanting to know if her friends back home are safe.

And they wonder about the condition of their cherished home. At present, they have no plans to return there to rebuild.

“There’s nothing to go back to,” Clements said. “Everything’s destroyed.”

Kurtis Clements and his wife, Ann Bragdon with their children Nate, Haley and Grady at their camp in Naples. Clements is holding a drawing of the home they fled in New Orleans.