Hurricane Katrina Devastated New Orleans. Some of It Came Back Better.
Hurricane Katrina was a chapter in the history of man's struggle both to control nature and to accept what he cannot control.
This is part of Reason's 2025 summer travel issue. Click here to read the rest of the issue.
August 28, 2025, will mark 20 years since my family rushed to pack up the cars and join 1.5 million people evacuating the Gulf Coast in the middle of the night. I was a week shy of turning 13 and storm evacuations were nothing new to me, but fleeing Hurricane Katrina felt noticeably different.
"It's funny," I remember my dad saying as he gazed into the overstuffed trunk of our 2002 Chrysler Sebring. It was packed to the brim with our valuables: family photo albums, sentimental knick-knacks, toys, the family computer. "What we choose to evacuate with is the kind of stuff a looter would just totally ignore."
Katrina weakened and jogged eastward, decimating the Mississippi Gulf Coast. For a few brief moments, it seemed as though New Orleans had "dodged a bullet," as the secretary of homeland security infamously declared. Instead we got breathtaking government failure, more than a million homes damaged, 25,000 evacuees seeking refuge at the Superdome, and 1,833 people dead.
Two decades and $120 billion in federal spending later, the place's recovery has been a mixed bag, and the memory of the fallout has been woven into the worn but lovely tapestry of New Orleans' history. Behind the 307-year-old city's reputation for bacchanalian celebrations, the area faces significant challenges.
The metro region lags behind the rest of the country in median household income by a large margin: $61,000, compared to the 2023 national median of $77,719. The population rose after being halved by Katrina until 2020, but then it started to shrink—and now New Orleans has been America's fastest-shrinking large metro area for two years in a row. A buffet of think-tank and media reports (one of which simply ranked Louisiana as the worst state in the country) can tell you all about the lack of social and economic mobility or the awful legal system.
Compounding these problems is a high cost of living that keeps rising, thanks in large part to skyrocketing insurance premiums from auto to home and flood insurance. The infamously nontransparent Federal Emergency Management Agency is still making its mark on southeastern Louisiana with flood insurance changes that have led fewer people to carry flood insurance and fewer people to live in New Orleans altogether.
One bright spot has been the radical overhaul of the Orleans Parish school system. Prior to Katrina, this was one of the nation's lowest-performing districts in terms of graduation rates and test scores; it also suffered rampant school board corruption. Such problems prompted a state takeover of the failing schools in 2003. But then Katrina severely damaged 110 out of 126 public schools in New Orleans—a tragedy, but also an unprecedented opportunity to revolutionize the system. When public education returned to New Orleans, it came through charter schools, not traditional top-down district schools.
What followed was marked success. By the time the New Orleans School Board was ready to take over once again in 2018, graduation rates had increased from a dismal 54 percent to 78 percent and test scores were up between 11 and 16 percentiles, depending on the subject and analysis method. Today, 99.3 percent of students in the district attend a charter school. And while the improvements have plateaued in recent years, in August the state will launch a universal school choice and education savings account program that may revolutionize the system again.
Education isn't the only thing that's been thriving. It should come as no surprise that New Orleans' entertainment and tourism industry was one of the first to rebound after Katrina: Business travelers, music lovers, foodies, and the soon-to-be-wed still flock to the city. From historical attractions to ghost tours to music festivals, it's hard to be bored there: Whether you're looking to enjoy a gourmet dining experience at Commander's Palace or prefer drinking and dancing on the street—or both!—this city offers a little something for anyone willing to tolerate the stifling humidity.
New Orleans is defined by more than its denizens. Its many swamp and riverboat tours show how the city strikes an unconventional balance with Mother Nature. Not far from the tourist attractions, human industry and ambition have to adjust to the marshy landscape and the plants and animals that live there. When observing this tenacious desire to thrive, the source of New Orleans' abundant dynamism comes into focus. For all the challenges it brings to human civilization, the Mississippi River Delta is also a large source of the region's life and vibrancy. Hurricane Katrina was just another chapter in the history of man's struggle both to control nature and to accept what he cannot control.
Since leaving Louisiana, I've spoken with countless people who either have already been to New Orleans—and loved it—or hope one day to see it. To which I say, everyone should go at least twice: once to experience Mardi Gras and once to explore everything else. Like a bafflingly valueless yet invaluable trunk of belongings, this city exudes individuality and the contradictory complexities that come with it.
This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Central Power’s Failures and Individuality’s Jewels on Display."
