I lived in Marrero, LA on the West Bank as a toddler and my godsister Angela still lives in the area along with more than a few friends, so I took it personally what happened to the city. I've also written posts since 2006 on the anniversary of the storm.
It's also eerily ironic that on the anniversary of the storm that took almost 1500 lives and devastated the region, the area is once again experiencing the effect of a hurricane.
Hurricane Isaac came ashore last night 90 miles south of New Orleans with Category One level winds, heavy rain and a storm surge that has already overtopped a levee in Plaquemines Parish.
That was far less than the Category 4 status Katrina pummeled the area with, but seven years later is still memorable for not only the devastation it caused, but also triggering the largest population movement of African-Americans since the Great Migration with the resulting seismic consequences to Louisiana, the Gulf Coast region and local, state, regional and national politics.
Since New Orleans has TBLG residents living there they were also affected. We were painfully reminded that transphobia and homophobia can rear its ugly head even in times of disaster relief situations. It prompted the Houston transgender community to compile a list every hurricane season of people who would be willing to host trans evacuees in case a disaster necessitated the evacuation of rainbow community people from their home areas.
We Texans can credit one of the four congressional seats we picked up in the 2010 census due to Katrina evacuees moving to Houston and Dallas and staying. Louisiana politics going red is also a result of the loss of African-American population from New Orleans.
So on the anniversary of Katrina's landfall, let's never forget the people who died during that storm and the ripple effects that are still reverberating in our communities from it years later.
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