Zach Blume was supposed to be sitting in a Tulane University classroom this week, studying the gods and immortals, the stories and legends of mythology. Instead, he was in his car running from a real-life beast of mythological proportions, a creature named Katrina.

Blume and his wife, Holly, had already left their New Orleans apartment and moved to the Hilton Hotel downtown, hoping to wait out the storm on high ground, their car in a covered garage. Saturday, they found out the storm was growing — too big, even, for a giant hotel to weather.

“I grabbed a suitcase, a laptop and we drove straight through to Austin,’’ he said.

In Texas, Zach and Holly Blume watched along with the rest of the world as much of New Orleans disappeared under water.

So they came to Lincoln, where Zach grew up, where Holly graduated from college and where Zach’s mother lives.

The hope of Zach continuing school, a goal he’d started last fall and had quit one of his two jobs to devote more time to this year, seemed remote.

Until his mother heard the University of Nebraska was offering to help students displaced by the hurricane.

Now the 27-year-old Blume hopes to be back in class next week. On high ground at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“It was almost like someone was reading my mind,’’ he said.

NU’s gesture includes allowing students to pay in-state tuition, assistance with registration and finding housing, and help transferring credits once their colleges reopen. It is similar to offers of help from other universitites around the country.

“Thousands of college students in the Gulf Coast — including many students from the Midwest — have seen their campuses closed indefinitely due to hurricane damage,’’ NU President James B. Milliken said in a release.

The Nebraska State College system will offer special admission to Chadron, Peru and Wayne State colleges for the fall semester and will help with housing.

Creighton University in Omaha and 24 other Jesuit schools will take in Loyola students for a semester, The Associated Press reported.

The American Council on Education estimates 75,000 to 100,000 college students in the New Orleans area are affected by the storm, and nearly three dozen universities were seriously damaged, the AP reported.

For Holly Blume, who teaches second- and third-graders in New Orleans, damage to the buildings, to the city where she’s lived for three years, is secondary to the human devastation.

She’s worried about her friends and her students, many of whom didn’t have the financial means to leave like their teacher, had no family in the middle of the country to take them in.

“Every time they show a shot of the Superdome or a shelter I’m looking for my kids,’’ she said.

Reach Margaret Reist at 473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com.

Where to go for help

Students seeking assistance can contact the University of Nebraska at NUhelp@nebraska.edu or by calling (800) 742-8800. Call the Nebraska State College System at (402) 471-2505.