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.”