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Hurricane Katrina flooded nearly every building in St. Bernard Parish, east of New Orleans. Twenty years after the storm, oil and sugar refineries are back, but the population has not recovered. NPR's Jeff Brady reported from St. Bernard Parish back in 2005, and earlier this month he returned and found that the sprawling, blue-collar coastal community is still rebuilding.
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JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: When I first met Kevin Potter in December of 2005, he was at his brother's house, which was being rebuilt.
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KEVIN POTTER: We had about 2 1/2 to 3 foot of water.
BRADY: Twenty years ago, Potter also planned to rebuild his flooded home, but only if two things happened. He wanted the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet closed. That's a shipping channel known as the MR-GO that brought Katrina's storm surge into the parish.
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POTTER: The MR-GO has got to be closed or a gate. Some type of device has to be installed. We have to correct the levees.
BRADY: The MR-GO was closed and a 22-mile levee system built around St. Bernard Parish, part of a regional $14.5 billion federally funded flood protection system. So today, Potter is back.
Hi there.
POTTER: How you doing, Mr. Jeff? Haven't seen...
BRADY: Good to see you.
POTTER: ...You in a while.
BRADY: Twenty years (laughter).
POTTER: Yeah.
BRADY: Potter catches me up. His family lived in a FEMA trailer in their yard for two years after Katrina. He was laid off from his oil refinery job. And now, at 71 years old, he worries about the cost of flood insurance.
POTTER: And we're still fooling with the house. You know, we almost have about 90%.
BRADY: The living room floor is bare concrete, and the back wall still needs a brick exterior installed. Rebuilding was more expensive than he imagined, and his wife's day care business was the first priority.
POTTER: I built the day care center. I had all the receipts, and I doubled it. I doubled it when I made an estimate. And everything was coming back triple.
BRADY: In this politically conservative community, people don't connect more intense storms like Katrina to climate change, as scientists do. Still, for many, the cost to rebuild and the risk of future storms was too much. They left and never returned. U.S. census data show the parish population dropped from over 71,000 people before Katrina to about 45,000 as of last year.
Mark Benfatti was among those who left. He owns a construction company an hour's drive away in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
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BRADY: This is a change for Benfatti. He owned four restaurants in St. Bernard Parish, but they all flooded, along with his home.
MARK BENFATTI: I had 3 feet of water on my second floor. So I think I estimated 12 to 13 feet of water inside of our house in St. Bernard.
BRADY: Benfatti says the parish is only a few feet above sea level, but his current neighborhood is on higher ground.
BENFATTI: Where I'm at now, it's going to take 22 feet of water before it even gets in my house. I just think that's a little bit better chance.
BRADY: St. Bernard Parish President Louis Pomes says many residents left after the storm because there were no schools, health care facilities and grocery stores.
LOUIS POMES: I mean, for three months you couldn't spend a copper penny in St. Bernard Parish. There was nowhere to spend money. There was nothing in operation.
BRADY: Drive through the parish now and there's more green space - gaps in neighborhoods where houses used to stand. The population has changed, too. There are fewer white residents and more Black and Latino people. That's despite a parish ordinance that homeowners could only rent to blood relatives. A judge ruled that was illegal discrimination, and the law was rescinded. Pomes says that was a costly legal fight for the parish, and now his focus is on attracting new residents.
POMES: That would be really awesome if we can get at least another 20,000 more residents in St. Bernard Parish.
BRADY: With a rebuilt hospital, new schools and a campaign to attract more businesses, Pomes is optimistic. So is 22-year-old Belle Landry, who works at her family's store and restaurant.
BELLE LANDRY: Like any New Orleans restaurant, we have red beans on Monday.
BRADY: Landry was 2 years old when Katrina hit. Her family returned to St. Bernard Parish as soon as they could and later bought this business.
LANDRY: And I love the culture here. The people - they definitely have, like, a resilient spirit.
BRADY: Residents hope that eventually will bring their community fully back, 20 years after Hurricane Katrina.
Jeff Brady, NPR News, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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