Seven Lessons We Should Have Learned from Hurricane Katrina...and Still Can!
If "Never Again" Is Our Collective Aspiration!
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived,
but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”
Maya Angelou
At this moment 20 years ago, many families like yours and mine were busy preparing for a Hurricane. They knew it was going to be a tough one and most were taking the necessary steps to stay safe. But by the next morning (August 29th), it was clear that Hurricane Katrina was going to do more than make landfall - it was going to rip through the Gulf Coast and leave behind the kind of physical and emotional devastation that people don’t soon forget. It gets seared in our collective consciousness.
The images of families stranded on rooftops, elders in wheelchairs waiting for buses that never came, watching people in the Superdome stuck in desperation, and neighborhoods submerged under toxic water…I cannot forget that. What about you?
But here’s the ground truth: too many of us have already forgotten.
As tragic as it was, we are literally forgetting what could help us ensure this never happens again. And each anniversary risks more of us ignoring the lives we lost and the lessons we should have learned from them.
On this 20th anniversary of that tragedy, we face two tomorrows: learn from it or watch it happen again.
We can’t go back in time. We cannot return to “normal,” because “normal” failed too many people. But we can begin to build a new normal founded on resilience, justice, and equity.
Today, those concepts (resilience, justice, and equity) may feel far from where our nation stands today, but the only way forward is to remember the lessons and act on them so that we can say with confidence, NEVER AGAIN!
The Seven Lessons We Need to Learn and Take With Us from Katrina
1. Disasters Expose Inequities, They Don’t Create Them.
2. Good Housing is the First Line of Defense.
3. Our Infrastructure Reflects Our Values and Our Priorities.
4. Government Has to Be Both Competent and Compassionate.
5. Neighborhood Networks Save Lives.
6. Recovery is Not Neutral; It is a Choice.
7. We Cannot Forget the Lives of the People Who Fell Because of Our Flaws.
Never Again Must Be Our Collective Aspiration.
The question today is not whether we remember Katrina, but whether we are willing to act on its lessons.
As climate change intensifies, storms are expected to become more severe and more frequent. This is the moment to strengthen our weather forecasting systems, emergency response systems, and neighborhood institutions that enable community leaders to do their best work.
The best way to honor those who suffered and those who died is not with words, but with a commitment to heed these lessons so that we can say with confidence: NEVER AGAIN!
