•REPRINTED FROM THE 2025 EDITION OF
WASHINGTON PARISH MAGAZINE
Believe it or not, it’s been 20 years
today since Hurricane Katrina
slammed into Southeast Louisiana.
During the stifling hot days of September 2005, residents of Washington Parish became accustomed to what we termed “the new reality”.
That new reality included no electricity, and thus no air conditioning. For some, it was no water. In the beginning, it was no gasoline. For all of us, it was the constant roar of chainsaws as crews and individual homeowners fought an overwhelming invasion of fallen trees and fallen branches. And there was plenty of property damage. If it didn’t happen to you, all you had to do was look around and very quickly you’d spot a damaged home or building and, always, a blue tarp.
It’s hard to remember now, but initially Katrina wasn’t even coming to Washington Parish.
After the hurricane crossed South Florida and headed toward the Gulf coast, the predictive forecasts put its potential landfall near Pensacola --- well to the east of us.
We felt bad for the Florida panhandle but we also felt relieved.
But the projected track kept inching more and more to the west, toward us. It was worrying us.
And then on Saturday, August 27, the new projected track showed that Southeast Louisiana was now the primary target and it looked very much like Washington Parish would definitely feel major effects of Katrina.
Many people had already started preparing, but before Saturday’s projected track was announced there had been plenty of hope (and optimism) that we would be spared. People did what they normally do to prepare just in case, stocking up on gasoline, food, and flashlights.
Most of us initially planned to ride it out, like we do for almost all hurricanes. But then, in addition to the revised track, the National Hurricane Center upgraded the strength of Katrina. It was now a massive Category 5 and it was fully expected to make landfall as at least a Category 4. Some of those local residents who were planning to stay quickly changed their minds and evacuated.
The rest of us ---- well, we did what we could.
And in the early morning hours of Monday, August 29, a date we’ll never forget, Katrina came ashore on the Louisiana-Mississippi border near the mouth of the Pearl River.
It created massive flooding in New Orleans which resulted in a tremendous loss of life. And then it headed north, with the eye just to the east of Washington Parish.
But Katrina was a big storm, very wide, and so even with the eye passing to the east of the parish, we still got hit hard.
Trees fell all over, roadways were blocked, water levels rose, and in every part of the parish there was property damage. During the hours that the storm raged through the parish, those who stayed here and rode it out watched with both fear and amazement....and prayed for the shrieking winds to end.
Finally, the winds gradually died down and the storm moved on to the north. Later in the day Monday people began coming out of their homes to assess the damage. In many areas they could not drive around to view the storm damage because there were too many fallen trees blocking roads.
But by late Monday afternoon, residents and different public crew members were working together as a team to cut up the fallen trees to create narrow alleys on the blocked roads.
And a very welcome sight for many residents was the arrival of National Guardsmen from the Franklinton armory. They strode purposefully down the road, swinging their chainsaws and other tools, and only hours after the storm passed us they were clearing road after road.
The Guardsmen, the co-op workers from around the country, the Town of Franklinton workers and the employees of the Parish Government, our law enforcement personnel...and our neighbors....and so many more. So many more. Of all of our memories of that dreadful time, from August 29 until well into October, it is the memory of teamwork, of everyone working together and helping out that remains with many of us even today, 20 years later.
Katrina was a mean and cruel beast, but it brought out the very best in Washington Parish. We are stronger and our parish is stronger for not just enduring it, but eventually overcoming it.
