Remembering Hurricane Katrina: 20 Years of Loss, Survival, and Humanity
It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, yet the memories remain vivid for those who lived through it. Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August 2005 as a Category 3 storm, and it devastated the Gulf Coast in ways that would change emergency response in the United States forever. More than 1,400 lives were lost, entire neighborhoods were destroyed, and families were left to navigate chaos, flooding, and heartbreak.
When Katrina approached, the city held an eerie calm. Retired AP journalist Chevel Johnson Rodrigue recalls the skies being perfectly blue, almost like a normal summer day. No one could have imagined what was coming. Alex Brandon, an AP photographer, remembers boarding up his home early, knowing that in Louisiana, every storm must be taken seriously. When the levees broke, it wasn’t just the storm that caused destruction—it was the water that inundated homes and streets, overwhelming a city largely below sea level.
Brandon had the unique experience of embedding with the New Orleans Police SWAT team. He and the officers rescued over a hundred people from flooded homes. One memory stands out: a paraplegic woman trapped in her attic. With limited tools, Brandon and the team used an ironing board to lift her safely onto a boat. It was a mix of adrenaline, improvisation, and humanity in the midst of catastrophe. Brandon recalls alternating between helping people and capturing the moments on camera, including a now-famous photograph of Fats Domino being rescued.
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For many residents, survival often came from the kindness of strangers. Lakeita Williams, then pregnant, spent two days trapped in her attic with her baby and partner. When floodwaters receded just enough to move, they were stranded waist-deep in water. Their rescue came from an elderly man in a canoe who guided them to dry land. She would never see him again, but his act of compassion saved her family.
Wil Haygood, a journalist who reported from the city, compared the devastation to war zones he had covered. Bodies floated down streets, snakes and alligators roamed the floodwaters, and people clung to rooftops for safety. Yet even amidst this horror, acts of altruism shone through. Anya Maddox, a young woman stranded in the storm, found herself helping out at a Waffle House in Gonzales and was eventually hired by the staff, showing how small acts of kindness could lead to survival and new beginnings.
Even those who had prepared and evacuated faced challenges. Roy Rodney, a New Orleans lawyer, led a caravan of 12 people to safety in Lafayette, Louisiana, sharing a single hotel room and later moving into a friend’s home. Through it all, neighbors and strangers provided shelter, shared resources, and helped one another recover, illustrating the extraordinary resilience and humanity that emerged in Katrina’s wake.
Hurricane Katrina destroyed homes, uprooted lives, and exposed vulnerabilities in disaster response, but it also revealed the compassion, courage, and resilience of ordinary people. Twenty years later, survivors and journalists alike reflect on the storm not just for its devastation, but for the moments of humanity that shone through the floodwaters.
The images, memories, and lessons from Katrina are a reminder of how quickly life can change—and how powerful human kindness can be when disaster strikes.
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