Dignitaries and longtime residents gathered under gray skies at the memorial to Katrina’s victims in a New Orleans cemetery where dozens who perished in the storm but were never identified or claimed are interred.
“We do everything to keep the memory of these people alive,” said Orrin Duncan, who worked for the coroner when Katrina hit. He comes to the memorial every year, opening the cemetery gate and making sure the grass is cut.
Two decades later, it remains the costliest U.S. hurricane on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The failure of New Orleans’ 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 football stadium.
“We are the children of the ones who did not die,” they sang. “We are the children of the people who could fly. And we are the children of the ones who persevered.”
At the cemetery memorial, revered jazz clarinetist Michael White played “When the Saints Go Marching In” as a procession carried several wreaths to lay beside mausoleums of the storm victims. Mayor LaToya Cantrell recalled the city’s sacrifices and projected optimism for its future.
“New Orleans is still here; New Orleans still stands,” Cantrell said. “New Orleans came back better and stronger than ever before.”
“Government neglect killed us,” local civil rights attorney Tracie Washington said. “We will never forget it.”
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 of Hip Hop Caucus, an organizer of the anniversary events. “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.”
City leaders are pushing for the anniversary to become a state holiday.
In Mississippi, where hundreds perished as Katrina’s storm surge demolished homes overlooking the Gulf, residents and officials gathered to mark the anniversary in Gulfport.
Haley Barbour, Mississippi’s governor when the hurricane struck, recalled the “utter obliteration” he witnessed from a helicopter after the storm passed.
“It looked like the hand of God had wiped away the coast,” Barbour said.
New Orleans resident Gary Wainwright said never misses the cemetery memorial service on Katrina’s anniversary. On Friday he wore a frayed red necktie, covered with the phrase “I love you.” He salvaged it from his battered home in the storm’s aftermath.
“It’s a little bit tattered, like the city,” Wainwright said. “But it’s still beautiful.”
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