Home / Disasters and Accidents / Katrina Survivor Reclaims Her New Orleans Home 8 Years Later
Katrina Survivor Reclaims Her New Orleans Home 8 Years Later
30 Aug
Summary
- Lucrece Phillips survived Katrina in 2005 while in a body cast
- Faced years of trauma and tragedy after evacuating to Texas
- Moved back to New Orleans in 2013 despite PTSD from the disaster
In August 2025, Lucrece Phillips, a 62-year-old poet and hairstylist, recounts her harrowing experience surviving Hurricane Katrina in 2005. At the time, Phillips was recovering from neck and back surgery in a body cast when the devastating storm struck New Orleans. As floodwaters rose, she and her family took shelter in their attic, with her daughter writing their names on the ceiling in case they didn't make it.
Despite the trauma, Phillips refused to give up, telling her family, "We're going to get out of this." The family was eventually rescued by boat, but the pain and challenges were far from over. Phillips faced a long recovery process, unable to have her cast removed until February 2006 due to a lack of medical care. The family also struggled to find work and housing in Texas, where they had evacuated, and Phillips' 18-year-old cousin died by suicide in 2011, unable to return home.
It wasn't until 2013 that Phillips finally moved back to New Orleans, despite the PTSD she had developed from the disaster. "Coming back to New Orleans, I had to sit on the floorboard of the car because I couldn't watch open bodies of water anymore," she says. But her love for her city and family drove her to return, and she is now advocating for improvements to the city's infrastructure to prevent future tragedies.
