"Thousands of people had evacuated in advance of the monster storm. But many stayed behind. And even before the storm made landfall, the levees protecting New Orleans began to fail, overwhelmed by heavy rain and massive storm surges. The flooding was catastrophic and the scars from Katrina, which killed nearly 1,400 people across the Gulf Coast, are still evident today. Katrina remains the costliest storm on record in the United States."
""Sometimes, it's hard to remember that people were kept away from their houses for a year," Green said. "If you had a job and lost it, you had to get one somewhere else. A lot of people also lost their homes because the Road Home Program gave money based on property value. In low-income areas, you couldn't get as much money. So many people couldn't return.""
Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans, the storm caused catastrophic levee failures, massive flooding, and nearly 1,400 deaths across the Gulf Coast. The storm remains the costliest in U.S. history and recovery progressed unevenly, leaving visible scars and decimated neighborhoods in New Orleans. Many residents evacuated while others stayed and later returned to rebuild. Economic disparities affected return rates; the federal Road Home housing program allocated funds by property value, leaving low-income homeowners with insufficient aid. Local leaders and community members relocated temporarily but worked to restore neighborhoods and encourage returns, while some communities struggled to fully recover.
Read at www.npr.org
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