Monday, August 29, 2005, at 6:10 a.m. marked the start of a moment that would be forever etched in history. Category 3 Hurricane Katrina had just made landfall on New Orleans, and the city would never be the same. Its aftereffects wiped out more than 80 percent of the city’s infrastructure.

The same streets where children played and brass bands once marched were unrecognizable, submerged in water. Homes, history, and culture vanished, erasing the soul of the predominantly Black city, similar to that of Oscarville. In parts of the city, water climbed 18 feet high, taking more than 1,300 lives.

Millions across the region learned through television, word of mouth, or firsthand experience that the homes and safe havens they once knew were gone. An estimated 1.2 million people evacuated from

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