NEW ORLEANS — August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina made landfall then the levees failed flooding the city. August 29, 2021 Hurricane Ida slammed into southeast Louisiana leaving many displaced from their homes until this day. Monday, both storms will be remembered.
"It started raining, the wind picked up, and then the water started to rise," Cleveland Warren who stayed in his Holy Cross home during Hurricane Katrina as water rose said. "It got to the first step, the second, third, and then it came on in the house."
He and his son found neighbors who also stayed behind.
"They had on the news 90 percent of the city was under water… and you know lights and stuff was off," he said. "We walked on the levee all the way to the St. Claude bridge."
He remembers walking to the Morial Convention Center then being airlifted out to South Carolina. Months later he was back home to rebuild.
"I had to gut it out and rewire it, re-plumb it,"
Warren's home in the Holy Cross neighborhood is right across the street from the Katrina National Memorial Foundation which just moved into this Global Green building six months ago.
"The last location was 2800 Cleveland Avenue, that was destroyed by Ida, Hurricane Ida, so people are still recovering from Ida," Omar Casimire who founded the foundation in 2007 said.
The museum, now in its new 9th Ward home, houses photos and the 'Katrina List,' a collection of names and stories of Katrina survivors and victims.
"I think we made a lot of progress, but we have a lot of progress yet to make. Take for instance where you are here, the 9th Ward. The 9th Ward was completely neglected. They didn't realize people were coming back," Casimire said.
Exactly 16 years after Katrina, Hurricane Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon as a strong category 4 storm, carving a path of destruction through the region.
"Last year it was Ida, so you know, you kind of just keep on going you know. It's just one of them things, you can't do nothing about it, you know what I mean?" Warren said.
Coming up on WWL-TV Monday, watch special coverage of the one year anniversary of Hurricane Ida in a special 4:00 p.m. newscast.
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