“Stronger Than A Storm. Reflections From Katrina Kids”

By: Guest Writer Brittany Dillard

 

 

Shoes, check. Uniform, check. School supplies, Check. Booksack, Check. A storm that felt like the end all be all……no comment.

One thing almost every grade school student had in common that fourth week in August of 2005 was that we were planning our 2nd week of school, being kids and having fun. No one expected to run. No one expected what was coming.

“Last week I wore these shoes, so next week Imma hop out with these shoes.” I laid them out that Friday night with care. Fashion was on my mind as a 14 year old High School Freshman. Books weren’t important until that first threat of a test. Friday I was planning my fit and Saturday I was saying Goodbye.

“Stop. Step back and look at the house because it might be the last time you see it as it is,” said Gwen Sanford, my mom.

That woke me up. I looked down at my suitcase in my hand, Big eyed with shock, but then I brushed off the alarming feeling. “ We’ll be back, we always do.” I reassured myself. I looked at my brother who was two years younger than me. He seemed to be thinking the same.

“For me it wasn’t a big deal. I was thinking we were bout to go to Mississippi and cool out and then come back home like we always did. It was just like the yearly vacay to our cousin’s house,” says my brother, Silas Sanford, 33. Sanford, from Marrero ‘The Westbank of New Orleans’ was 12 years old at the time.

We pulled out of the neighborhood, merged onto LAPALCO BLVD, then the Westbank Expressway, then the Crescent City Connection bridge, which at the time was named the Greater New Orleans bridge. I believe we all took for granted the feeling of a smooth traffic flow until we hit the mighty traffic jam of thousands of other evacuees, which caused us to inch across the bridge for almost the entire duration of the trip. A trip that usually took 3 and a half hours took us a tedious 11 hours. We left our home August 28th at 10 AM and arrived in Jackson, MS at 11 PM.

For hours, when the traffic wasn’t at a standstill, we were going 5 to 10 miles per hour. No birds were in the sky, no wind was blowing, no tree limbs swaying. There was only stillness in the air. We were watching the weather change. We were watching the water beat up against the bridge. As night was falling and the city was inching away, there was seriousness in the air. A very pronounced quiet. In those The Big Easy didn’t feel like the Big Easy anymore.

We were detoured. The usual route we took out of the city was closed, so we didn’t know where we were going, we just followed the flow of the traffic. All we knew when we got to the state of Mississippi very late in the day was that we were on Highway 49. We were anxious, worried and more than anything, exhausted.

Amongst those thousands of evacuees was Christian Favorite, a teen from the Eastbank. We, unknowingly, would later meet in Richland, MS. Favorite and his family, like us, had no idea where they were headed. Our usual route to MS was closed and they too had to take a detour. We were all traveling up MS HWY 49.

“I most definitely felt like it was going to be a turn around trip; like it was just an extended weekend. I don’t think anyone thought it would be life altering.” Says Christian Favorite.37, He is from The Upper 9th Ward. He was 17 years old at the time.

“I took a weekend bag, lol. I told my brother ‘It’s not like we not coming back.’ I fully expected to go back home.”

Not everyone evacuated. 16 year old Sonnisha Amos from the 7th ward and her family waited out the storm at Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans with her mom, two sisters, cousin, aunt and uncle.

“For every hurricane we would get a hotel because our house and our grandmother’s house sat high off the ground( was raised). We just thought it would be a normal little bad weather situation like it normally was when officials say’ hurricane,’” says Amos, now 36.

Amos had a grand view of the happenings on the street below her during and after the destruction of the storm. “Before the storm hit I saw people packing, evacuating, after the storm I saw people looting for fun but also for things they needed. They didn’t have power. They didn’t have food. People were doing any and everything to survive. It also made me think about my classmates that couldn’t evacuate.”

Amos says one of the most important things she felt was safety. “ I was with family and we were in a safe environment. They provided us with food and they provided my mom with milk and formula for my baby sister. I felt safe and secure.”

As soon as we received clearance to re enter the city of New Orleans. That’s exactly what we did. We went home. We went to see if this nightmare flooding the news was real or if it was all just a bad dream. A bad joke. The city looked as if it hadn’t had any sun for months. Certain streets were closed because of blocked roads from death and devastation. The scenes were horrific. Homes were completely uprooted or demolished, cars and boats were in trees. In our neighborhood, most houses were still standing but were ruined by flood water. Ours was one of them. The neighborhood looked defeated.

“Our neighborhood had a type of ‘life’ to it. You had certain people you saw every day, people at the corner store, the types of cars going up and down the street… but.. from what I can remember when we returned, is that it felt..dead,” says Sanford.

“You come back to your neighborhood thinking it’s going to be the same thing that you left, (people walking up and down the street, cars,) but it was really lifeless and gloomy.”

Our house depicted that picture well, fitting in like a piece of the neighborhood puzzle. It looked like it was just a frame, a bookmark, holding a spot for something that once was but now wasn’t anymore. “It looked like our house…it looked like our house but lifeless.” Sanford says.

We were amongst thousands of New Orleanians trying to pick up the pieces. Heartbroken and heavy and amazed because although devastating it was captivating. We had never seen sights like this before and we knew this was a mark in history. And we were the lucky ones. We were still breathing.

“Entering the city you saw the (code) markings on the houses, cars turned over, debris, just disarray,” recalls, Favorite. “ You saw people trying to salvage. Our house was there but there were code markings on it.

“What stood out to me was the mold line. It was there…just chillin. The water rose to probably 6’8 on the wall.”

There wasn’t much Favorite and his family could salvage, but there was 3 interesting pairs of survivors that Christian found. “I had just gotten hired at 6 Flags and with my first check I had bought 3 pairs of shoes. Before the storm I had left my shoes on my bed. When I went back home my mattress and my 3 pairs of shoes had floated to another room but they were still there, untouched in their boxes.. They had survived.” Favorite’s family was able to rebuild their home. His mother still lives there today.

We spent 3 months going back home trying to salvage what we could. We were Blessed. Some people had nothing after the storm, while we were able to continuously salvage something almost every week. We could take a part of home back to MS with us. We were saving items and items were saving us.

“ It was therapeutic to go home,” Says Gwen Sanford. My mom. “ We left some things in the house on purpose. We had the mindset that ‘ If I didn’t get everything, if I left something there, we’d still have something at home”

After months, mold took over the home and we were no longer able to salvage anything. But we had so much and even more to be thankful for. However, one factor lingered in our minds; The mental toll Katrina had on us weeks, months and even years after.

Sanford recalls the initial shock and his struggle with acceptance.

“Ok, so we’re never going back. And it took me a while to understand, I was like, wait, so, we’re never going back? Are we going to wait a while to fix up everything or what? But no, we were never going back to live there. Never see the house again. Never heard from some of the friends I had again. It was like life flipped in one night.”

Life did flip in one night. Favorite recalls the day before evacuating the storm as a sunny, chill day with his brothers and sister, playing on the Playstation and playing Spades. Amos reflection the week before and how she was just a normal teen, excited about a new school year, going to block parties and catching the RTA bus with friends from one event to the other.

Sanford remembers chilling with neighborhood friends, the girlfriend he had just made and getting the shoes he really wanted, a crispy white pair of Nike Air Force Ones, which, in New Orleans are referred to as ‘G-Nikes’.

And I recall my last visit to my favorite mall, pausing at the Cafe Du Monde, eating an order of Beignets in the food court. We were enjoying our youth, making our plans heedlessly through our innocence, and the weather was making its own.

If we would have known, doubtlessly, that we would have caught our final bead at Mardi Gras, our final Second Line Sunday, last walk along the River Walk, heard our last drum or horn on Bourbon Streel, took our last stroll on Canal, spent our last dollar at the Jackson Square as New Orleans residents, we would have slowed our step, looked at the sky, breathed in the air and taken it all in.

“I kinda took New Orleans for granted.” says Favorite. “I wondered why people made a big fuss and ‘broke their necks’ to get here. Because you know everything that happens in New Orleans is normal to us. But then you realize, there’s no other place like New Orleans. New Orleans is actually super magical. You realize that what’s normal to us is magical to other people. Then you become one of those people on the outside looking in and you’re like ‘Dang, that’s a one of a kind type of place.”

What we couldn’t quite comprehend as children has, overtime, through closure, healing and prayer, become clear to us as adults. There were lessons in Hurricane Katrina.

Amos says “Katrina taught us how to survive. If you could survive that and get out of that, you can survive anything. It also taught us that we are some strong individuals. We different. New Orleans is different.”

Sanford says “ Nothing lasts forever. Your life can change in the blink of an eye.”

Favorite says “ The wind can blow either way, always be prepared and listen to your parents. It definitely taught us to take all experiences as individual experiences. Never let one experience define another. It taught us to take all weather concerns seriously.” Favorite added another lesson: “Even in the most unexpected situations, you can find the best in it.”

This speaks true for all four of us. In the past 20 years since Hurricane Katrina, Each of us continued our education, completing High School as scheduled, earning Degrees, starting careers and businesses.

I completed High School in Mississippi and earned my BA in Mass Communications from Belhaven University. I have worked for publications and have also worked in the school system in Mississippi. I am a proud wife and a proud mother to two sons, ages 9 and 6., My oldest son was born in August 2015, almost to the day of the 10 year anniversary of our evacuation.

Sanford completed High School in Mississippi and earned his BA from Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. He is a proud father to his 11 year old son. Sanford has a talent and passion for music. He is a Digital Marketing Manager and Crypto Day Trader.

Amos was able to continue her High School education at her school in New Orleans. She also attended High School while living in MS. She earned many Degrees from Jackson State University. She has worked for the Federal Government for the past 13 years. She is a Credential Specialist. She is a mom to a daughter, an 18 Year old MSU Freshman who will be attending school on a $30,000 scholarship and was Valedictorian of her 2025 class at her High School.

Favorite completed High School then continued into Barber School where he earned his Barbers License. He is a proud co business owner of his barbershop / Salon. It was voted #1 Barbershop/ Salon in 2024 by The Clarion Ledger and made top 3 in 2025. He plays the guitar for youth ministries at his church. He is a father of two, a boy and a girl, ages 6 and 8, and a devoted husband.

Gwen Sanford has lived in Richland for the past 20 years .She was an educator in New Orleans and continued her career in Mississippi public schools following hurricane Katrina. She is now retired. She is an outstanding lifelong artist and is currently in the process of publishing her memoir.

So why should people care about Hurricane Katrina 20 years later?

Amazing things have happened in the lives of the survivors and of the city. There have been many devastating storms and natural disasters since. Well, let’s not forget the darkest side of the storm.

It is important to remember the terror and unjust treatment some residents went through. It is important to remember how we were labeled and abandoned. Innocent people died on the street covered up by only a sheet, bodies left wet and bloating. People died in the Superdome, in their homes, in hospitals, in jail, on their rooftops awaiting help. It’s important not to forget that we were labeled as refugees and animals because of the views of some of our countries’ leaders. People trusted the news and therefore did not trust us. We were outcasts in our own country due to bad leadership and prejudgment. Those innocent lives should never be forgotten, no matter how much time has passed. We will never forget. Those people counted. They will forever matter. Currently, there are several Hurricane Katrina memorials in New Orleans and other affected areas.

Favorite, Amos, Sanford and myself reflect on the strength of the city and its impact around the US and the world. We have untamed pride in the city that is a huge part of who we are. Like the city, we are still standing. We celebrate the city’s resilience, the great people, culture And the goodness of God. New Orleans is our heart. Katrina was a scar, but it was just a part of the story. We tend to share a bit of culture everywhere we go.

“The culture of the people of New Orleans is so strong that if we go somewhere else, people tend to gravitate toward it because it’s new and it’s fun, it’s lively.” Says Sanford. “For example, I see how it’s influenced music in Florida, culture in Houston, culture in Georgia.. There’s a lot of mixture of New Orleans culture in a lot of states and communities that would have never gotten there if Katrina wouldn’t have happened.”

“There was nothing like Katrina.” Says Amos. “It made some people. It made some people think about their life. It’s relevant because the city is still standing. It couldn’t break the people. The people are still there, the community is still there. The food is still there, the POBOYS is still there. The seafood is still there. It ain’t going nowhere. We have been through it… and its a part of us.”

-By Brittany Dillard August 2025

 

Brittany Dillard is from New Orleans LA. She developed a passion for writing at age 9. She is a graduate of Belhaven University with a degree in Mass Communication. She is a proud mom and wife.