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Susan Cowsill has no idea what her home looks like, or if she even has a home anymore.
"We can't go back, we can't get information and we have no idea," said Cowsill, who lives in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans. "We know the city is now 80 percent water."
Cowsill grew up in Newport and her family group, the Cowsills, was a pop sensation from 1967-70, including four Top 40 hits and a spot on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
None of the family members currently lives here, but they have played several reunion shows at the Newport Yachting Center in recent years. Cowsill has called New Orleans home for 13 years.
"What we know is that we can't go home for who knows how long," she said by phone Thursday. "We don't know what to expect when we do. It's a quandary and a half."
Cowsill said she knows she's better off than some of her friends and neighbors devastated by Hurricane Katrina. She and her husband/musical partner Russ Broussard are staying with friends in Nashville, Tenn., and Cowsill's 12-year-old daughter, Miranda, is with them. Cowsill's 7-year-old stepson, Nicolas, is with his mother in Birmingham, Ala.
"We're blessed to have many, many refuges available to us," Cowsill said.
Cowsill is part of a close-knit musical community in the Big Easy. And, she said, while watching "way too much" television news, she's wondered what has happened to friends.
"It's not like a big city in a lot of ways," she said. "We hang out with all the musicians. We all know each other."
Cowsill said she has tried to text message and call people in New Orleans, to little avail. She has, however, been in touch with family members across the country. She is concerned about her brother Barry, who had been living in Newport but recently moved to New Orleans, where he's lived in the past.
"That guy has about 19 lives," she said. "I'm sure he'll be fine. But it's hard when you can't reach people."
While her life is in disarray, Cowsill is working to keep her musical career going. She's stayed in music since childhood, performing with Dwight Twilley and her former group the Continental Drifters, and is releasing her debut CD "Just Believe It" nationally on Oct. 11.
"It's my first solo CD and we're very excited about it," she said.
Cowsill is scheduled to perform Sept. 18 at the Fall River Festival of the Arts in Fall River, Mass. Other area gigs are possible. (Check the forum section of www.susancowsill.com listings.)
Cowsill said she is luckier than most. She is with her immediate family and has food and shelter. She knows others are in trouble, stranded without bare necessities.
"I told my daughter that there's a beginning, middle and end to everything," she said. "This shall pass."
Meanwhile, she wants to send a message to friends in her old hometown. "Tell everyone in Newport that we love them," she said. "The best thing they can do is to donate to the Red Cross. A lot of people need help."
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