Abbey Hotard ’19, ’23 was just a kid when she and 1.2 million other Americans left New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina. Just over an hour northwest of New Orleans, Ashley Ross ’03, ’10 worked on her political science thesis at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge. Neither were prepared for what happened the day after Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on Aug. 29, 2005.

“You go to sleep thinking this hurricane’s going to miss us and wake up the next day in the middle of a disaster,” Ross, now an associate professor for the College of Marine Sciences and Maritime Studies at Texas A&M University and a researcher for the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas, said. “Baton Rouge’s population had doubled in size overnight from the people who had to leave New Orleans.”

Within 24 hours, Hotard’s hometown was flooded. Over 70% of the city’s occupied housing units were underwater. Thousands of New Orleanians found themselves stranded and remained displaced months later.

Hotard, who is an assistant professor of marine and environmental sciences at the University of South Alabama, said her experiences then and in the years after fostered a sense of resistance spurred by the disconnect between her lived experiences and the conversations taking place at the local and federal levels surrounding those impacted by the storm.

The story continues in Texas A&M Stories.