In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, leaving behind a city submerged in water and despair. The Lower Ninth Ward, one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods, symbolized tragedy and resilience.
A photo from the scene of the 2005 disaster shows the Lower Ninth Ward so flooded that the roofs are barely visible.
Today, the same streets are lined with brightly painted houses and community gardens. There are also several sets of comparative images of the same location before and after the disaster in the ten years following, all of which testify to the city’s recovery.
While the story of the rebuilding of New Orleans is full of hope, one group has been commonly forgotten during this disaster – the African-American child disaster victims.
Many children of African descent from low-income families lost their homes, their schools, and even their families in the aftermath of the hurricane. Nobody asks how these children doing Some of them were forced to move to other states, living in temporary shelters or unfamiliar neighborhoods, with psychological trauma going unnoticed for long periods. One of the children recalls, “We didn’t talk to anyone else about how the hurricane affected us because no one asked us.”Buckles, director of documentary ‘Katrina Babies,’ speaks with surviving children
Although the stories of these children are often drowned out in the larger reconstruction narrative, their unheard voices are just as much a part of New Orleans’ history.
