Katrina

In 1982, the name Katrina ranked 87th in popularity, its high-water mark as it were.

Now, twenty years removed from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina (having made landfall in Louisiana on August 29, 2005), the moniker Katrina barely registers a blip, likely never to regain its cultural prominence.

Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 hurricane at its apex, submerged eighty percent of New Orleans back in 2005. The protective levees were breached in fifty three locations during the height of the storm. It remains the costliest ($200+ billion) natural disaster in U.S. history, predicted to be surpassed only by the cost of the recent California wildfires.

My love affair with New Orleans evolved post-Katrina. I had been to "The Big Easy" on numerous occasions prior to the storm, always for work, always tucked away inside some hotel conference room. But Katrina broke open my heart, and over the years, I made my way to New Orleans numerous times as part of the rebuilding process. 

The aftermath of that disaster revealed a different version of the city's spirit, something the beads, and the king cake, and the bourbon had previously masked.

While the consequences of Katrina still linger, so too does the exuberant vitality of its inhabitants. 

Laissez les bon temps rouler, mes amis. Tu n'es pas oublié.