📋 Looking Back at Hurricane Katrina 20 Years Later (AARP Article)

[Winter2025VA]

FROM THE ARTICLE.

20 Years After Katrina, These Older Adults Are Still Stepping Up.

Our reporter returns to the Gulf Coast to talk to six 50-plus residents who have made it their mission to rejuvenate their communities.

By David Hochman, AARP. Published August 22, 2025.

In New Orleans, longtime residents once sat on their porches and waved the weather forecasters along, certain the Mississippi would mind its manners. If you’d weathered Betsy in 1965 and other big blows, the wisdom boiled down to a shrugged “We’ve been through worse.”
Then came Katrina. When the levees failed on August 29, 2005, nearly 80 percent of New Orleans was submerged, making it one of the costliest residential disasters in U.S. history. Nearly 1,000 people were confirmed dead and 200,000-plus jobs disappeared almost overnight. Though those 75 and older made up just 6 percent of the city’s population, they accounted for more than half of all lives lost.

USE LINK BELOW TO READ THE ARTICLE.

https://www.aarp.org/events-history/hurricane-katrina-anniversary/

[papawofboo]

I was told that there was a neighborhood in NO that actually looked up at the river. They lived on the lower side of a levy. I went there 50 years ago and never had the desire to visit again. 

[Winter2025VA]

Thanks for stopping by Papaw @papawofboo !!!

Lol, I am with you on that.  🤣😂

Take care,

Nicole!

➡️[*** PAPAW 

---

@papawofboo wrote:

I was told that there was a neighborhood in NO that actually looked up at the river. They lived on the lower side of a levy. I went there 50 years ago and never had the desire to visit again. 

---

[Winter2025VA]

Personally there is NO WAY I am "rebuilding" or staying in an area that is KNOWN to be "unsafe" unless this issue has been resolved.

(1) Virginia. I live on a "hill" and EVERY time we get our "regular" floods, the bottom of it gets flooded out. But guess what, the businesses that have been down there "forever" is still there. Lol, I guess they just DRY OUT & return to business. Then we have the KNOWN "flood zones" beside our numerous rivers. And AGAIN, homes beside them forever. They get "rescued" in boats on a regular basis.  🤔

(2) Florida. Lived there & returning at some point. Between the sharks, crime, alligators & hurricanes - NOT in a hurry. But my daughter needs me closer. She lives in Florida & hated Virginia.

Take care,

Nicole (Friends & Family Forum)