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Driving into New Orleans two weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Lori Peek was overcome with sorrow.

Lori Peek stands near the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans prior to the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Credit: Charles Varley

Trees were flattened for miles. Water marks up to 20 feet high blackened apartment buildings. Holes in rooftops revealed where desperate families had used axes to try to escape the rising floods.

“You looked up at these houses, and you just had to pause and be silent,” recalled Peek, who just months before Katrina’s landfall had earned her doctorate in sociology from �山����.��

Weeks after the storm, she traveled to Louisiana to begin a collaborative study of Katrina’s impacts on children. “Not knowing if these people had survived, or what had happened to the children and their parents...these are images I will never forget.”

Twenty years later, Peek has co-authored three books and nearly 20 research papers about the historic storm, which killed more than 1,800 people, displaced an estimated 1.2 million residents from the Gulf Coast, and separated 5,000 children from their families.

Now, as director of CU’s and professor of sociology, she views Katrina as a “pivotal turning point” for the country. It not only revealed what’s possible—meteorologically—amid a warming climate, she said, but it also pulled back the curtain on social inequities that make some populations more vulnerable to natural hazards.

Nearly 20 years after Katrina, �山���� Today caught up with Peek to discuss what the disaster taught us—and what we have yet to learn.

What was unique about Katrina?

A New Orleans resident seeks shelter on a rooftop during Hurricane Katrina. Credit: Charles Varley

The storm itself was a monster. Even though it was only a Category 3 when it made its second landfall in Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005, it was at one point a Category 5 and, at that time, one of the most intense Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded.

We’re still talking about Katrina 20 years later, though, not because of its meteorological properties, but due to the social impacts. This was the first time in New Orleans history that the city was placed under a mandatory evacuation order. It was the first major natural disaster that was captured in a 24-hour news cycle, so people's immense suffering was on full display. It starkly revealed inequalities along race, class, gender and age lines.

How so?

People were told they were supposed to leave New Orleans, but at least 100,000 did not, and research has revealed that in most cases, they didn’t evacuate because they didn't have the resources.

It was the end of the month, and many people reported they didn't have money for gas or they didn't have a car. Others were caring for elders or children. New Orleans also had one of the highest disability rates in the country, and some couldn’t get access to transportation or couldn’t leave without their caregiver.

At the end of the day, the images that people saw on TV were overwhelmingly of Black Americans, low-income Americans, children, people with disabilities and elders suffering. People were stuck on rooftops in sweltering heat or wading through toxic floodwaters. Thousands ended up in so-called “refuges of last resort”—like the Superdome or Convention Center, which were not meant to house that many people for a week.

Were certain groups more likely to perish?

Yes. Even though people over age 65 only made up about 12% of the population of New Orleans, they made up 67% of those who died.

What happened in the months and years after the storm?

At one point, data indicated that Katrina survivors landed in every single state in the nation, and even in every county in Colorado. But when you look at who was displaced the farthest and who was or was not able to return, it, again, revealed how pre-existing inequalities shape people’s recovery.��

Even 10 years after Katrina, data showed that low-income people, Black residents, single mothers and people with disabilities were least likely to be able to return home. It’s important to say that these survivors were not passive. Much research documented the incredible ingenuity and strength of families that worked tirelessly to rebuild their lives after the catastrophe.

What about the children?

Of the 5,000 children separated from their caregivers during the chaos of Katrina, the last child was not reunited with her family until April of 2006—more than six months after the storm. Even two years after, one study showed that some 160,000 children were still displaced from their home school district and not back into stable education and housing.

The boys and girls who we followed for nearly a decade for our book, "Children of Katrina," experienced loss of community and separation of family, but they also were generous and creative as they worked to contribute to the recovery.

What changes resulted from Katrina?

It was a reckoning for the emergency management community.

The former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was fired in the midst of the disaster, and, later, the government accepted responsibility for the failures that occurred at multiple levels.

In response, the emergency management community, nationwide, began to update their planning guidance to take much more careful account of vulnerable populations and better plan for the whole community.

This was a wake-up call for personnel in other countries, too. They were surprised that something like this could happen in the United States.

Could it happen again today?

Absolutely. Meteorologists have obviously recorded even bigger and more rapidly intensifying storms since. More people live in coastal areas now. And because we're also seeing rising economic inequality, we have more people without the means to take recommended preparedness actions.

We’ve also had a rollback of hazard mitigation and preparedness planning grants and initiatives recently and a loss of many of our federal officials who have been most responsible for leading mitigation and preparedness. This leaves us more exposed and vulnerable at a time when the risk of severe storms is rising.

What advice do you have, as we reflect on this somber anniversary?

Go back and look at the images from Katrina. Look at the city of New Orleans, a vital city, underwater, but then home in and look at those people's faces. Know that there were actions that could have been taken in advance to lessen the suffering.

There are all kinds of lessons to be learned, but we're running out of time. The next disaster is right around the corner.