New Orleans marks 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with memorials and brass band parade

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina crashed into the Gulf Coast, New Orleans is set to commemorate the anniversary Friday with memorials, performances and a parade to honor those who were affected.

Katrina, which was a Category 3 hurricane when it made landfall in southeast Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005, remains the costliest U.S. storm on record, with damage estimated at upward of $200 billion when adjusted for inflation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. About 1,400 people died in five states.

The failure of the federal levee system inundated about 80% of the city in floodwaters that took weeks to drain. Thousands of people clung to rooftops to survive or waited for evacuation in the sweltering, under-provisioned Superdome stadium.

Survivors and city leaders are set to gather in the Lower Ninth Ward, a predominantly Black community where a levee breach led to devastating flooding that was exacerbated by a delayed government response.

The event, sponsored by Katrina Commemoration Inc. and Hip Hop Caucus, will feature prayers and prominent local artists like Dawn Richard and Mia X. Organizers say it is also intended to draw attention to the sinking city’s poor infrastructure, gentrification and vulnerability to climate change.

Thousands of attendees are expected to join a brass band parade known as a second line. The beloved New Orleans tradition has its roots in African American jazz funerals, in which grieving family members march with the deceased alongside a band and trailed by a second line of dancing friends and bystanders.

A parade has been staged on every Katrina anniversary since local artists organized it in 2006 to help neighbors heal and unite the community.

“Second line allows everybody to come together,” said the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, president of Hip Hop Caucus. “We’re still here, and despite the storm, people have been strong and very powerful and have come together each and every year to continue to be there for one another.”

Other commemorations include a wreath-laying ceremony at a memorial for dozens of unidentified storm victims and a minute of silence, to be observed at 11:20 a.m.

There are also museum exhibitions, documentary screenings and city-organized discussions Saturday on the future of New Orleans’ culture, infrastructure and ongoing recovery.

City leaders are pushing for the anniversary to become a state holiday.

Katrina’s impact still felt

The city’s population, nearly half a million before Katrina, is now 384,000 after displaced New Orleanians scattered across the nation. Many ended up in Atlanta, Dallas and Houston.

In the aftermath, the levee system was rebuilt, public schools were privatized, most public housing projects were demolished and a hospital was shuttered. About 134,000 housing units were damaged by Katrina, according to The Data Center, a nonprofit research agency.

The storm had a disproportionate impact on the city’s Black residents. While New Orleans remains a majority Black city, tens of thousands of Black residents were unable to return after Katrina. A botched and racially biased federal loan program for home rebuilding, coupled with a shortage of affordable housing, have made it harder for former residents to come back.

“(Katrina) wasn’t just a New Orleans moment,” Yearwood said. “It was a national moment, and it’s a time for reflection and commitment to a better way of how we’re handling these issues moving forward.”

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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.