20th Annual Hurricane Katrina March and Second Line

People are using it as a day of healing and commemoration, marching through the streets of the lower Ninth Ward, where the levees broke.

“I’m always honored to come here and celebrate this thing every year. It’s all my area. You know, I’ll never forget it. I’ll always remember,” said lower Ninth Ward resident Ricky Gettridge.

The failure of the levee system led to huge amounts of the city being flooded for weeks, as thousands climbed onto rooftops to survive.

Lower Ninth Ward resident Valeria Schexnayder says some days she has to laugh, to stop from crying when she thinks of that horrific day 20 years ago.

“Feel like I’m still living in Katrina, I just don’t have the water. You know, it’s a sad moment for me. My neighbors drowned in 22 feet of water. I rebuilt, it’s like that was the only one who came back,” said Schexnayder.

But while walking the streets, she says she is happy to see so many come out for such a healing experience.

“It was good to see people come into town that you haven’t seen when everybody got misplaced,” said Schexnayder.

Organizer Sess 4-5 said people from all over are showing solidarity, never forgetting what Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans 20 years later.

“We have people that lost, you know, kids, mothers, grandmothers and, you know, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. For everybody who stood on those bridges, fighting year after year to make sure that we never forget,” said Sess 4-5.

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