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Emani Scott, her brother and their grandmother were separated from Emani's mother and baby sister when New Orleans was evacuated during Hurricane Katrina in 2005

It would take two years before Emani reunited with the rest of her family in Texas

Today, Emani is an educator in and a single mother of two girls in New Orleans

When PEOPLE first spoke with Hurricane Katrina survivor Emani Scott in 2005, she was a 13-year-old girl sheltering at a West Virginia military base with her younger brother Emanuel and grandmother Jerilynn. Although they were together, the family had been separated from Emani’s mother and her 10-month-old sister Jermani, who ended up somewhere in Texas, although the rest of the family didn't know that at the time.

"We cried and prayed. I thought they'd

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