Katrina Evacuees Find Love After Surviving Disaster

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Sept. 28, 2005 — -- Their old lives were washed away by Hurricane Katrina, but now Jacquie Gordon and Ronald Herbert have started a new life together after a chance meeting after the storm struck.

They each were single and alone just one month ago when the floodwaters engulfed their New Orleans homes. Now the two are inseparable.

"This is the first time in a long time that I have been happy," Gordon said.

When the water rose to her attic, Gordon banged her way through the dry wall and swam through the house looking for air pockets.

"I caught my breath, and I dive back in the water, and I swim through the furniture," she said.

While across town, a stranger she would soon embrace was also fighting for his life.

"You could see the water coming down the avenue like the Mississippi river," said Herbert.

Cigarettes, a New City, and Then 'Something Clicked'

Eventually, their separate survival stories intersected amid the chaos and desparation of the now-infamous New Orleans Convention Center.

"It was like from one hell hole to another," said Gordon.

As they waited for help along with thousands of other stranded citizens, Gordon and Herbert happened to meet. But romance wasn't on their minds at the time.

"We was bickering over cigarettes," she said.

But when they ended up on the same evacuee transport plane to a place neither had ever dreamed of living -- Salt Lake City, Utah -- something clicked.

"I didn't wanna be by myself, didn't wanna die by myself, didn't wanna grow old by myself," she said.

The two lives that had been in danger in New Orleans are now one. Gordon and Herbert are starting over with a new apartment and a marriage arranged by volunteers.

With a Mardi Gras band providing the entertainment, it was for a moment as if the couple had never left New Orleans.

ABC News' Jim Avila filed this report for "World News Tonight."