NEW ORLEANS — As Americans paused Sunday to reflect on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the impact of the killer storm remains a part of everyday life in New Orleans.
At the Spain Street Church of God, the congregation has plenty to be thankful for.
Their building stands and their pastor lives.
Five years ago, as Katrina barreled through southern Louisiana, Rev. Johnnie Montgomery was roaming the streets in chest-deep water, refusing help.
"I just had a mind to stay, mind to stay; I didn't want to go nowhere," he said at the time.
Montgomery stayed, living in his flooded home and eventually rebuilding it. He said he does not regret that decision.
"Somebody else says, 'If it happens again, would you stay?' I said, 'I don't know; see me when that time comes.'"
Montgomery, like thousands of others, refused to abandon his city.
Since Katrina, New Orleans has struggled to find its rhythm. But slowly, families like the Lasties returned.
Andrew, now 10, is now back with his grandmother, Sarah Lastie, who called Plano home for three years after the hurricane.
"Dallas is a big city and it has a lot — a lot to offer — but it's still like not being home," she said. ""I was just there hoping and praying I would get back to New Orleans."
This year, her prayers were answered. Donations built her a new home in the Lower Ninth Ward which is bigger — and stronger — than what had been destroyed in the flooding.
"There's no place like home," Lastie said. "I love New Orleans."
For all the success stories, there remain many failures.
Nearly a quarter of New Oreleans' population never came back. Sixty-thousand abandoned homes scar neighborhoods.
Volunteers gutted Lora Cohea's home years ago. She doesn't have the money — or the energy — to move it further.
"Even with nothing in it, I recognize it; I just wish I could get back in it," she said. "Every time I turn to get a little help somewhere, it just falls. I don't know what to do."
Cohea, like many, still hope to one day come home.
It's a message that Rev. Johnnie Montgomery now preaches every Sunday in a city that is healing and changing.
"I'm still here, still here," he said. "Thank God for it, thank God for it."
In Katrina's aftermath, city leaders have seen an opportunity to fix some of the problems that have plagued New Orleans.
While crime remains an issue, the education system has improved.
But despite all the accomplishments, studies show that New Orleans' population will likely never match what it was before the storm, and that those residents who left and never returned are unlikely ever to come back.
E-mail jbetz@wfaa.com
