Levee breaches from Hurricane Katrina dumped six feet of water into the New Orleans home of Mary Duplessis and her husband in 2005. The Black community of New Orleans, already economically lagging behind white residents before Katrina, was pummeled by the Category 3 storm that made landfall Aug. 29, 2005 and by the lengthy rebuilding process. Images of residents, mostly Black, on top of roofs, cars and at the Superdome stadium became the most iconic of a storm that revealed to the world a city starkly divided into haves and have-nots.
Mary and Barrett Duplessis pose for a portrait in their home in New Orleans, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020. Levee breaches following Hurricane Katrina dumped 6 feet of water into the home of Mary Duplessis and her husband in 2005. She remembers lots of paperwork and bureaucracy in her Katrina recovery, and she recalls the scenes of misery at a convention center where thousand were trapped without power or running water. But, for her, COVID-19, has been worse.
Today, the city is still majority African American but has nearly 100,000 fewer Black residents than it did before Katrina. Many couldn't imagine the community taking a bigger hit than it did from Katrina, but in some ways, that's happening with the coronavirus pandemic. Data show New Orleans' Black residents dying at greater rates —After Katrina, Duplessis' husband, Barrett, was back at work as a Sheraton Hotel maintenance mechanic within weeks.
For Doreen Ketchens, the pandemic is economically much tougher than Katrina. When she isn’t touring the world for clarinet concerts, she’s playing in the French Quarter with her husband and daughter . After Katrina, she could travel for gigs around the country, but that’s not an option now. A once-full calendar has dwindled to nothing.
“This is still the best tourist destination in the world," said Jay H. Banks, a Black City Council member. “People want to come here because of this magic. But it certainly has not been of great benefit to the people that make the magic happen.”
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