Six years ago hurricane Katrina made its second landfall in southeast Louisiana. It caused severe damage across the Gulf coast from Texas to Florida, and had a permanent affect on the land and the people of the Gulf coast.

Hardest hit was New Orleans, where homes  were uprooted from their foundations and tossed aside as if they were made of match sticks. Entire neighborhoods left as ghost towns because either the residents decided to permanently relocate or had no resources to get down to the work of rebuilding. Streets that vibrated with life in the evening were now dark because the streetlights and residents that lit up the neighborhoods were gone.

But in the aftermath of the storm, when people were reeling from the damage that Katrina had done to so many people, volunteers were packing food, gathering supplies, and driving through the night to get to the Gulf coast to do whatever needed to be done.

Six years later, the marks that Katrina left on the Gulf coast are still visible.

Six years later, the Gulf coast is not completely what it used to be. Some of the people who were displaced never returned home.

Nearly six years later, three thousand volunteer leaders from across the country came to New Orleans to learn from each other when the National Conference on Volunteering and Service was held in New Orleans.

Six years later, we know more about the power and drive and hope of people reaching out to help each other during the worst of times.

 

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• Hurricane Katrina: Then and Now
• Photographic Memories: Katrina Volunteers & Disaster Relief
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