As the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, Death, Sex & Money travels to New Orleans to talk to people about their lives since the storm. Terri Coleman, an instructor at Dillard University, described Katrina as “erasing the world.” Big Freedia, widely credited with popularizing New Orleans bounce music post-Katrina, remembers it as "a survival time." And Simone Bruni, New Orleans' "Demo Diva," called it "a rebirth."
There is no single story of the storm. Instead Hurricane Katrina is a jumping off point, one which leads in many directions, including political office for a newly elected coroner, finalized adoptions in a growing family, and mixed emotions about what’s been lost in the rebuilding.
Dr. Jeffrey Rouse is the Orleans Parish coroner—a job he describes as the “interface between law and medicine.” A decade ago, he was preparing for a life in academia, not public office.
Dr. Kiersta Kurtz-Burke spent Hurricane Katrina inside New Orleans’ Charity Hospital. Now that she's got two kids, she keeps her gas tank full in case they need to evacuate.
Big Freedia is a reality TV star and fixture in New Orleans' bounce scene. But days after Hurricane Katrina, she was sleeping on the street outside of the city's convention center.
Simone Bruni started her career in hospitality, and dreamed of eventually being a stay-at-home mom. But when Katrina hit, she was 32 and single. So she started a demolition company.
There's no single story about Hurricane Katrina or life in its aftermath. This special series looks at the storm's impact on five very different New Orleans residents.
When Katrina hit, Terri Coleman was a troublemaker—burning cars and getting stoned. She recalls, “The storm allow[ed] my weird adolescent destruction to be socially acceptable.”
