Two Decades Post-Katrina: Exploring Race, Wealth Disparities, and Community Resources

August 29, 2025, marks two decades since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the northern Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm, claiming nearly 1,400 lives and displacing over a million residents across Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, resulting in damage exceeding $200 billion—rendering it the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.The most glaring devastation occurred in New Orleans, where the levee failures starkly revealed that race and class were critical determinants of survival and recovery. In 2000, New Orleans had a staggering Black poverty rate of 35%. Many predominantly Black areas, like the Lower Ninth Ward, disappeared underwater, leaving families displaced forever. Twenty years later, data shows a transformed New Orleans: a city with fewer Black residents, an increased racial wealth divide, yet improved healthcare access.