Back in August 2005, the city of New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Nearly 2,000 people were killed, with one million displaced.
Around 80 percent of New Orleans was left underwater after the levees broke. It caused $161billion worth of damage and remains the most expensive storm on record.
Two decades on, the Super Bowl is back in New Orleans. A number of young boys survived the hurricane and have now reached the NFL. This is Generation Katrina.
CORNELIUS LUCAS
OFFENSIVE TACKLE, WASHINGTON COMMANDERS
AGE WHEN KATRINA HIT: 14
We moved away from New Orleans a month before Katrina hit. My stepdad was an electrician looking for work so we went to Atlanta. But all my stuff was still in the storage unit back home and everything got wiped away. To this day, I don’t have a baby picture.
My sister, grandmother, grandpa and cousins were left behind in New Orleans, too. They were staying in a high-rise building and they got on a boat from the second floor. That’s how high the water was. Most of them ended up making it to the Superdome, where there was lawlessness – people p***ing and s***ing and getting raped in the bathroom.
My sister had to sleep on the highway for a night. She was a diabetic and all she had? A pack of gum and maybe a bottle of water.
Back in August 2005, the city of New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina
Nearly 2,000 people died after around 80 percent of New Orleans was left underwater
DailyMail.com spoke to six NFL players who lived through the storm before reaching the top
We didn’t know where they were, cell phones were dying, and we were seeing the news about the flooding. When the storm hit, it knocked down a lot of the cell phone towers. So we were trying to connect on a call for what felt like hours. After about a week, they came to where we were.
But we moved back immediately, because all the work was in New Orleans. It was still flooding and the smell was awful – a stench of sewage and mildew and terribleness. It was like that for months, almost years and I would have headaches from just being around mold all the time.
It was lawless for a while, too. There weren’t enough police officers. So people just got to roam and do whatever they wanted. People were driving crazy and you were protecting yourselves when the lights went out. You couldn’t call the police or order pizza or walk to the store. We only had one McDonald’s on the entire Westbank.
I used to go to church in the ninth ward, where the levee broke, and I remember going over there once the water settled down. It was a flourishing community but an entire row of houses were gone. They got washed away and the second block got washed away into the third block.
A lot of people didn’t want to deal with the hassle of cleaning out their house. So they auctioned it off to whoever wanted to do it. So I signed up with my grandpa, gutted out a few houses and probably made $5-600. I learned the value of hard work but had tremendous headaches from it. And seeing the mold, the waterline, what was left behind – those pictures will never leave my mind.
The stench is in me forever, too. Walking into my grandmother’s house after they got flooded with 12ft of water, it was putrid and I smelled it for months because the city was underwater for weeks and sea water doesn’t dry like regular water – the salt, the fish, the mud that came rushing in.
I was living in a FEMA trailer in the driveway of my aunt’s house. Damn near my whole family was staying at her two bedroom, one bath house. They set up camps for people in need, where they would have underwear, socks, toiletries, peanut butter and jelly.
Walking through those camps, you felt helpless and homeless and I went to school feeling like a refugee. A few of my friend moved to Texas, and I see them on Instagram now, but I have yet to see them in person since Katrina.
Cornelius Lucas of the Washington Commanders helped gut houses following the storm
Lucas’ family were rescued on a boat from the second floor, ‘that’s how high the water was’
One million people were displaced from New Orleans after the deadly hurricane 20 years ago
My father drowned when I was seven and after the storm, it was just like: ‘F***, I can’t escape this.’ Just loss after loss. The feeling of something being here today and gone tomorrow – that never fades from my mentality, to this day.
My great aunt made it through the storm and the travel. Then, a month or two after Katrina, she passed away. I feel like, no doubt, it had something to do with all the stress. A whole city of people have tremendous trauma – and never talked about it. Never saw a therapist about it. I just talked to others from New Orleans, and I feel like that is therapy for a lot of us.
People my age are terrified of water because of Katrina. At pool parties, I would sit on the edge, I wouldn’t dive under. Getting into the ocean, lakes or rivers? That was a no.
Football wasn’t big on my mind until I came back from Katrina. In that period I hit puberty and grew like 6 to 8 inches. I went back to my original high school and my football coach was on me from day one. He just stalked me.
If I didn’t make my way back to New Orleans, have Coach Luke in my ear, making me do push ups in the hallway, pressuring me to come play football, I probably wouldn’t be in the position I am right now.
KRISTIAN FULTON
CORNERBACK, LOS ANGELES CHARGERS
AGE WHEN KATRINA HIT: 6
The apartment that we lived in when Katrina hit is less than five minutes away from the house that we’re in now. It’s crazy. Sometimes I go back and drive past that building and think how much has happened since.
I remember returning to New Orleans after the storm – you never knew what you were going to see. Roofs gone, branches and trees all over the place. A lot of people were still without power. We were on the West Bank and we had some damage, too.
But luckily, we were on the second floor so I just remember some windows being busted out. Even now, when I go out to the east, damn, it’s been almost 20 years and they still haven’t made it better.
Kristian Fulton, who was six when Katrina hit, is a cornerback for the Los Angeles Chargers
An aerial shot showing the devastation across New Orleans following the storm in 2005
Life before Katrina was good. We had a nice house, I was playing football and basketball and I ran track. It was just worry-free. But it was different when we came back. Maybe a day or two before Katrina hit, we ended up going to Baton Rouge to stay with my aunt and uncle.
We were sometimes without power but I was six – you don’t really grasp what was going on. Most of my friends came back or they never left New Orleans because people couldn’t afford to.
About two weeks after the storm hit, we went back to check on our apartment and then we ended up in Atlanta, Georgia by the start of the school year. I spent a couple of months out there and it just felt weird.
Obviously everyone knew what was going on in New Orleans. But once they heard how bad it was – and they see someone coming out of that situation – they treated me like I was different. They just treated you like a foreigner, like you weren’t one of them. Like I wasn’t one of them.
But I just know my family stayed close the whole time. All my family still lives in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
We were always a close family, but it just brought us closer. We started getting together on weekends as a whole family, just to enjoy the time that we could spend together.
When the Saints came back, we’d get together on Sundays, cook, and watch the game. That’s how we bonded as a family. My dad cooks everything – ribs, pasta, seafood boil. I started playing football aged five and he coached my team and he coached me in track.
Life before Katrina was ‘worry-free,’ Fulton says, ‘but it was different when we came back’
One time, we played at the Superdome – at halftime of a Saints game. I wasn’t nervous playing in front of a big crowd. Not at all. I just remember making plays.
Now I’m in the NFL, if there’s something my dad sees, he’ll still tell me how I could have done better. But he coached me well enough to make it to this point. So I can trust him.
When I go back to New Orleans now, I make sure I see my aunts, my parents, my grandma – it’s different going back now, being older. I appreciate the people and I just don’t take anything for granted.
That’s something that Katrina taught us. You just have to make a way for yourself. Just always keep going through whatever – there are better days ahead.
WILL CLAPP
CENTER, BUFFALO BILLS
AGE WHEN KATRINA HIT: 8
Every once in a while, when I’m in that part of town, I will drive by my mom’s family print shop. I loved that that place. We all grew up there. We would go after school and chill until my mom finished work. She set up a playroom for us – with a TV and toys – but I remember one time, I really wanted a certain video game. So my mom put me to work for two days.
It’s abandoned now. During Katrina, it had about 15 or 16ft of water. Everything was gone. My mom never tried to rebuild it and nobody has done anything since.
I was pretty young – 3rd or 4th grade – but I remember watching the news and realizing: Wow, this is bad. My grandmother’s house had about 15ft of water and all her belongings were gone. She had lost my grandfather the year before.
There are still certain areas of New Orleans with abandoned houses and graffiti from Katrina. It’s 20 years. We were super lucky – one of my dad’s teammates from college had a lake cabin in False River. It’s about 45 minutes outside Baton Rouge.
Will Clapp’s grandmother lost all her belongings after her house took on about 15ft of water
The center evacuated from New Orleans and many of his family members lost their homes
We went there for probably eight or nine weeks. It was a trailer – two bedrooms, two bathrooms – and I’m one of four boys. We had two cousins, my aunt, uncle and my grandmother with us, too.
My dad went back early – he got a pass into the city and checked on everybody’s properties. Our place was good. So we had family – who stayed for the hurricane – living there because their house got flooded. I heard stories about people having to break into a spot – just to have a place to go.
My mom’s cousin’s family lost their house, so they lived with us. So did my grandmother and uncle, because they lost their houses. One of my mom’s distant cousins lived with us, too. We called it the dormitory – every room was just packed.
It took a while for everybody to regroup and figure out: how do we go about this to get back to normal? My grandmother’s house never came back. She just took the insurance money and she ended up buying the house right behind my parents’.
We were super blessed. My parents actually bought a lake house out in False River and my teammates and friends would come out. My wife and I made a bunch of memories out there.
To this day, we’ll have people come stay at my parents’ house – my dad has a generator hooked up so whenever hurricanes do hit, our house will have power. But Katrina opened your eyes up to what’s actually going on in the world. As a kid you almost have goggles on; this was my first glimpse of other people’s struggles.
Situations like that can definitely make you tougher and make you understand: it’s is not always going to be easy. So keep your head down, keep working, and try to get back to where you want to be.
GRANT DELPIT
SAFETY, CLEVELAND BROWNS
AGE WHEN KATRINA HIT: 6
My dad worked in the New Orleans Police Department for a long time. So we knew everybody around the city and we would always go to Saints games. They knew me as that kid running up and down the ramps at the Superdome – rather than watching the game.
Grant Delpit, a safety for the Browns, recalls discovering that his home was underwater
I spent my younger years in New Orleans East…there is no place like it,’ Delpit said
But growing up, I was pretty much a baseball player. My first football try out was a week or two before Katrina. I was the No 1 pick in the draft and then the storm came. I had no idea what was happening. I was probably thinking we were going to my cousins’ for a little bit. Next thing I know? I never went back to New Orleans.
I spent my younger years in New Orleans East. My whole family stayed close together and there is no place like it – the culture, the music, the food. The night before Katrina, we just go out of there and next thing I know, we’re in my aunt’s house in Houston. It was full of people. So someone would get sick and everyone would catch it.
Back home, my whole house went underwater. We were able to save a few pictures but we pretty much lost everything. I know my grandma specifically asked my dad to put her pictures on the top, top shelf. That saved them and she’s been happy about that ever since.
I’m really happy we didn’t lose anybody but Katrina put my parents in a bind – moving to a new city and not having anything to go off. No flood insurance on the house, nothing like that.
Life in Houston was totally different. It was a way bigger city and I only knew one person – I had one friend who was at my school in New Orleans and I followed him to his school in Houston.
We didn’t end up moving back and I have mixed emotions about that. Katrina definitely affected me – I don’t really have any childhood friends that I kept in contact with. So that was tough and so was moving around schools.
But Texas did me well – school wise and football wise. And I ended up where I am. From sixth to eighth grade, I played with CeeDee Lamb of the Cowboys. He was always making plays and we always had always the best team. We were balling and then I went to LSU.
The Superdome, which hosts this weekend’s Super Bowl, is covered in trash after Katrina
The stadium became a refuge for desperate citizens of New Orleans following the storm
My first college game was at the Superdome and my family moved back. After Katrina, New Orleans had a smell to it – if you know, you know. And it was apparent for a couple of years after the storm. My grandma on my mom’s side actually still lives out in the East. She cooks everything – the best gumbo you’ll ever have.
My dad lives in Arabi and his mom lives right by him. My mom lives in Lakeview – I think she still has the same kitchen table as before Katrina! So I still go to the East all the time to see my people. It’s really like home. Like it always was.
I really don’t claim Houston, to be honest. I feel like you can only be from one place. I always tell people I’m from New Orleans and Katrina taught me something to be able to make it here. Now I just try to do the best I can for the city and make the people, my family there, proud.
CETHAN CARTER
TIGHT END, FREE AGENT
AGE WHEN KATRINA HIT: 9
My mom worked as a chef at a restaurant on the Lakefront called Russel’s Marina Grill. I was really young when Katrina came, I didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation. At all.
But when it really hit home to me? It was when we first opened the door to our house and my mom seen inside. She just broke down crying. That’s what she went to work for every day – to own that house. And it was destroyed.
Our roof had caved in, all the rain had got in the house and all our stuff was wet and all moldy. Then it had sat in the hot sun. So the smell of mildew was very strong.
My parents had never gone through anything like that –they didn’t know the next step to take, or what their future looked like. We lived in Harvey and I had to be in fifth grade at Pitman Elementary School on the West Bank. It was me, my mom, my dad and my older brother.
Cethan Carter, a tight end, recalls his mother breaking down after seeing their home damaged
Months after Katrina, the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans was still a sea of damage
I was just like every normal kid – back then, I hung out with my friends and we rode bikes and played sports. Nothing crazy.
Before Katrina hit, we evacuated – we went to Mississippi and stayed with some family. There was maybe 15 people there; me and my brother slept on the floor in a bedroom with my parents.
My mom took important stuff with us, including pictures and the papers she needed. But we left Mississippi because we were on the outskirts of the hurricane and I remember the power going out. It got really hot, so we left and we were able to get a hotel in Houston for a weekend. Then we came back home. It’s a four-and-a-half hour ride to New Orleans but that ride ended up taking about 15 hours.
Because our house was destroyed, my parents stayed at my grandma’s apartment and I ended up staying with my best friend. Hector lived down the street, and his house was totally fine.
I stayed with him for a little bit and then we moved into a raggedy little apartment for about seven or eight months as the house was being rebuilt. I remember there was a little crew going around the neighborhood, trying to fix up any damage they could.
I remember picking up trash for them and they gave me about 50 or 75 bucks a day. That was my little job. Why I remember it? I stepped on a nail while cleaning up someone’s yard. That s*** hurt. I didn’t go to the hospital. Hell, no. They took my sock off, threw some peroxide on it. It was a little sore for a couple days after but that was it.
I didn’t live in the inner city where the violence was very bad. But if you still drive through to this day, you can see where Hurricane Katrina left its mark. Abandoned buildings, places torn down. I still keep an eye out for nails!
But the people here are different – they treat you like family. It’s a unique culture. I’m very proud of my journey – it ain’t easy to make it to the NFL and sustain a career. It’s definitely not easy coming from New Orleans.
STANLEY MORGAN JR
WIDE RECEIVER, TENNESSEE TITANS
AGE WHEN KATRINA HIT: 8
We were some of the first people back in the city after Katrina. You could still see the water line. You could see where they put crosses on buildings and showed you how many dead bodies were in there. Or how many dead animals were in there.
When you grow up, you think: damn, that was crazy to see. But as a kid, we were just outside trying to see whether our friends were back.
It slowly built up – month after month, year after year – so you’d see the city filling back up. Some neighbors didn’t come back. I was in the second grade when Katrina hit. You don’t meet a genuine soul like someone from New Orleans but life didn’t return to normal until I was in middle school, maybe high school.
Even now, I have a house down there and if there’s a high-category hurricane, we’re out of there. I feel like you should leave after what you’ve have seen. It’s not just about a flood, it’s about being without power or without food.
Evacuees from New Orleans take shelter inside the Astrodome in Houston Texas
The last day before Katrina, my family packed up and went to Baton Rouge. It’s only an hour away, but it took us about 10 hours to get there.
I didn’t know it was going to make history. I thought it was just another hurricane… but it tore the city up, flooded my house and I lost everything. All my baby pictures, videos, memorabilia – stuff that you can’t replace. We had to redo the whole inside of the house. So we stayed in Baton Rouge until it was renovated.
I remember my grandparents talking about how much water they had in the house – a lot of their clothes got moldy. I would watch the news and see how many people were dying. Family members who stayed for the hurricane and got out after, they came to Baton Rouge. They would tell us all about it and then find their own apartment. So I have family in Texas now. In California. In Georgia. In Florida. It spread our family out.
Before Katrina I was always at my grandma’s house. She would be there cooking, grandpa would be chilling by the TV. We’d just chill all night – talking, having fun. I still love going to my grandmother’s house for a plate of food or just to talk to her.
Katrina showed me how a family can stick together. How people can stick together. How strong we are. How we fight back. You look back and think: Damn, I wish everybody around you can see what you saw.
Because it’s a surreal thing to play NFL football. You think about Katrina during the tough times. You think: nothing can stop you. You just can adapt to anything. You can be resilient, keep your feet where you are, and just play that play.
