Left to right: Kenneth Avery, Brittany Penn, Adolph Bynum Sr., Marguerite Doyle Johnston and New Orleans Councilman Eugene Green Jr. all hail from the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, La. Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina flooded their neighborhood, they share their stories.
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Twenty years ago last week, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Plaquemines Parish, La., about 50 miles southeast of New Orleans. Thousands of people had evacuated in advance of the monster storm. But many stayed behind. And even before the storm made landfall, the levees protecting New Orleans began to fail, overwhelmed by heavy rain and massive storm surges. The flooding was catastrophic and the scars from Katrina, which killed nearly 1,400 people across the Gulf Coast, are still evident today.
Katrina remains the costliest storm on record in the United States and recovery has come in fits and starts.
In New Orleans, entire neighborhoods were decimated.
A view of the Desire/Florida neighborhood in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, La.
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The disaster challenged the government’s responsibility to its citizens and citizens’ responsibilities to each other.
In the Ninth Ward, located in the easternmost part of New Orleans, residents told NPR they couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Here are some of their stories:
Eugene Green Jr. (age 67)
New Orleans City Councilmember and realtor Eugene Green Jr.’s home in the Gentilly neighborhood was flooded during the storm. At the time, his children were 15, eight and six years old. He relocated his family to Houston, but came back to New Orleans on a weekly basis to help rebuild and encourage others to return. Six months later, his family moved back home.
New Orleans District D Councilman Eugene Green Jr. wears a badge of remembrance marking 20 years since Hurricane Katrina.
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“Sometimes, it’s hard to remember that people were kept away from their houses for a year,” Green said. “If you had a job and lost it, you had to get one somewhere else. A lot of people also lost their homes because the Road Home Program gave money based on property value. In low-income areas, you couldn’t get as much money. So many people couldn’t return.”
Road Home was a housing recovery program funded by the federal government.
Marguerite Doyle Johnston (age 67)
An office administrator at Southern University at New Orleans, Marguerite Doyle Johnston has long been known for helping her neighbors in times of crisis. Her roots in the Desire neighborhood go back generations. She’s been flooded out multiple times but still lives on Desire Street.
Marguerite Doyle Johnston in the house her grandfather bought and finished building. Johnston is a lifelong resident of the Desire/Florida neighborhood in the Upper 9th Ward in New Orleans, La.
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Marguerite Doyle Johnston touches a framed photograph of her son Chivas, who was killed on January 13, 2007 while living in a FEMA trailer next door.
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“Prior to the hurricane, my family and I used to give these big block parties,” she said. “We’d have senior citizens in the community come sign up in the event of something like this. But what happened was when they see a hurricane was about to hit, OPD said ‘Marguerite, don’t you break in that school again.'” That’s because she would break into locked school buildings to secure shelter for those most in need.
Doyle Johnston said that New Orleans will always be her home. “I was on one of the boats with the police officers when I see the back of my house, the chimney, all of that, caved in. It was gone. I knew I was going to build back — that was my heritage. My grandfather passed it down to us.”
Marguerite Doyle Johnston touching the plant she started growing after her son, Chivas, was killed on January 13, 2007 while living in a FEMA trailer next door.
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Adolph Bynum Sr. (age 86)
Bynum lives in Tremé but spent a half century working in the Desire community, running Bynum’s Pharmacy.
“Everyone knew about Bynum’s Pharmacy,” he said. “We set up the people of low income. We had layaway for toys. Christmas eve was our busiest day of the year,” Bynum recalled. “I cashed checks on welfare day and social security day. We had a dentist, a doctor’s clinic, a deli. Everyone came to Bynum’s because we took the electric bills, the water bills. Whatever you needed, we had it.”
He offered a $20 credit line and knew most customers by name. Though his home didn’t flood, the pharmacy did. After the storm, he made a career out of restoring historic homes.
Adolph Bynum, 86, the founder of Bynum’s Pharmacy, at his home in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, La., on Tuesday August 26th, 2025. Bynum’s Pharmacy (the city’s second Black-owned pharmacy) ran for 40 years and was a central place for the Upper 9th Ward community. The pharmacy was washed away by Hurricane Katrina.
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Bynum shows a house he is renovating in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, La., on Aug. 26, 2025. Bynum owns several homes in the neighborhood.
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Brittany Penn (age 36)
Penn was 16 when Katrina hit. She lives three doors down from her current business, a hair salon and rental units she owns on Desire Street.
Her parents, who managed property, insisted on fixing up their flooded home. Penn helped scrub the walls and still lives there today. She later turned that experience into a career.
Brittany Penn, owner of Lace Exclusive Salon on Desire Street, poses in her salon in the Upper 9th ward in New Orleans, La., on Aug. 26, 2025.
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Using profits from her hair extension business, she invested in real estate in the neighborhood.
“We used to be able to do everything in our community,” she said. “Everything was done in the Ninth Ward. After Katrina, seeing all these empty houses, so many vacant houses, it’s really different.”
Both of her parents have since died of cancer.
Hair extensions are one of Penn’s many businesses. She invests it all back in the community, including affordable housing.
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A barbershop inside Lace Exclusive Salon, owned by Brittany Penn on Desire Street, in the Upper 9th Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 26, 2025.
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Kenneth Avery, a lifelong resident of the Desire/Florida neighborhood in the Upper 9th Ward of New Orleans, stands in front of his home on Aug. 25, 2025. His house was flooded during Hurricane Katrina, but he came back very quickly after evacuating, and stayed. His home, and 65 others in the neighborhood were recently found to be standing on toxic ground. He was bought out, and just moved to this new home in 2023.
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Kenneth Avery (age 74)
Avery grew up in an affordable housing development in the Desire neighborhood and has lived through multiple hurricanes. His home in Gordon Plaza flooded, but he rebuilt it with insurance funds.
Later, the property was declared a Superfund site due to underground hazardous waste, and he was bought out of his home.
“The people in the neighborhood saw unusual things going on and hundreds of people were dying from cancer,” Avery said.
He now lives in a new home in Gentilly.
Kenneth Avery, pictured in front of his latest home in New Orleans, was born and raised in the Ninth Ward. He says he couldn’t see himself living anywhere else.
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The digital version of this story was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.