Remembering Hurricane Katrina 10 Years Later

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COLUMBIA S.C. (WOLO)– The nation pauses to remember on of the most destructive storms on record, Hurricane Katrina, ten years later. “There was something different about Katrina, there was something different in the air. It was a very somber mood for a city that’s never quiet.This was going to be a big one,” says New Orleans Native Clare Meesina. She was in the 6th grade when Mayor Ray Nagin ordered the emergency evacuation as Katrina rapidly approached Louisiana’s coast. Messina remembers,”You packed up your photos, you memories and everything. You really didn’t know what you were going to come back to.” The Messina family evacuated to Texas where they waited with eyes glued to the television as the storm tore through the Big Easy. “All we had was that connection to the media. Seeing those images it was scary you just hear that there was a lot of water going into the city and you didn’t know where. It was patience and waiting and just not knowing,” says Messina. After 4 weeks in Texas the family returned to their New Orleans home, not knowing what to expect. According to Messina,”It was really surreal because it was just, disaster. There were trees and debris in the street driving along the levy you saw boats that had kind of washed ashore, power lines down all over the place. It was really hard because the place that you know and that you love as home, wasn’t the same.” But Louisiana, wasn’t the only state who felt Katrina’s impact. “We saw the coast of Mississippi as the forgotten coast line in Hurricane Katrina,” says Dr. Christopher Emrich. For the past 10 years he has been tracking Katrina recovery along the coast of Mississippi and he says that many communities continue to struggle with rebuilding. Dr.Emrich says,”In our more recent work, we’ve found 50-60 communities that have still not recovered after 5 years they were less than 50% recovered and still to this day they haven’t fully comeback.” Now 10 years later Messina says she’s blessed and proud to be part of New Orleans, a community well on its way to regaining its voice.