NEW ORLEANS — It’s been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm. The disaster is remembered not just for its winds, but for the crushing surge of water that devastated rural Louisiana parishes and tore through the heart of New Orleans. Louisiana and Mississippi were among the hardest-hit regions, with entire neighborhoods submerged under floodwaters that left a lasting mark on the land and those who lived there.
Katrina weakened before making landfall on August 29, 2005, but still struck the Louisiana-Mississippi border as a Category 3 storm. The storm surge flooded homes, took more than a thousand lives, and turned reality into a nightmare along the Gulf Coast. Survivors today still grapple with the emotional and physical scars of the storm, which remains one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in United States history.
In Plaquemines Parish, seven-year-old Corrine English lost nearly everything when the small fishing town of Buras was swallowed by floodwaters. Her memories of the day the storm struck remain vivid, especially of her mother’s emotional reaction as the city’s fate became clear.