It's been 15 yrs since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, my home. Thinking of those who were in the Superdome, convention center, or waiting on their roof for help. Thinking of everyone who went back and tried to rebuild, and everyone who left home and never got to come back.
I was 3 days into my senior yr of HS when we packed our car and evacuated. Came back to a house that had been submerged in almost 10 feet of water. We never moved back into that home, just tried to salvage what was left. It was an entire city just trying to salvage what was left. 
I finished high school in Houston and then went off to college. My family moved back to New Orleans, but to a different home in a different neighborhood. It was always strange thing, to go home to a place that isn't the home you grew up in. To a city that could never be the same.
Every person and family has a story (or many stories) of how the Katrina impacted them. It was almost half a lifetime ago for me, but the storm shaped the way I both understood and navigated the world. I'm still learning about all the ways it shaped me, learning more every day.
Hurricane Katrina took away so much from so many. It took away homes that had been in families for generations, it took away loved ones, it took away neighbors and schools and friends and grocery stores and playgrounds and memories all the things that make a community what it is.
Katrina also showed us how this country fails its most vulnerable and historically marginalized communities, just as Covid-19 is doing today. It's been fifteen years and we're seeing another iteration of government failure, failure that takes a disaster and makes it even worse.
What was clear to me at 17, was that what happened to New Orleans would have never been allowed to happen to a majority white city. Katrina showed me systemic racism before I had the language for it, before I fully understood the way history had shaped the contours of my city.
I've recommended it before, but to understand what Katrina did to New Orleans, I *highly* recommend listening to my friend Vann Newkirk's podcast FLOODLINES. It's one of the best narrative and investigative podcast I've ever listened to.
theatlantic.com/podcasts/flood…
theatlantic.com/podcasts/flood…
