Pressured out after Hurricane Katrina, some discovered refuge in Houston : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x3368+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa0%2Fc1%2Fb32e39a5402ab1ca9baf220149b5%2Fhaircutphotos-07-10-25-justindoud-35.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x3368+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa0%2Fc1%2Fb32e39a5402ab1ca9baf220149b5%2Fhaircutphotos-07-10-25-justindoud-35.jpg" class="img" alt="Caption: John “Speedy” Riddle works in A Shaving Grace Barbershop in the southeast Houston area. Riddle moved to Houston at the age of 15 after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his family home." fetchpriority="high"/> Caption: John "Speedy" Riddle works in A Shaving Grace Barbershop within the southeast Houston space. Riddle moved to Houston on the age of 15 after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his household residence. Justin Doud/Houston Public Media disguise caption

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Justin Doud/Houston Public Media HOUSTON – When Jermaine Moore wants a haircut, he seems for barbers from New Orleans. At a Shaving Grace barbershop within the southeast Houston space, he is discovered one.

"New Orleans barbers reduce completely different," Moore stated. "Our hair texture is completely different. This isn't processed, that is my mom. However everyone cannot reduce it."

Moore is retired now. Earlier than 2005, he lived a snug life as an IT skilled in New Orleans. That modified after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his residence in 2005.

Whereas staying with household in Houston, he turned on the TV — and noticed his home within the floodwaters.

"Yeah, noticed my rattling home on the information … watched every thing float away, and searching down at that in a single day bag, realizing that, and my truck exterior, that is all I obtained left," Moore stated.

After the storm, he went again to New Orleans to survey the injury, and that is when he realized he must keep in Houston.

"You realize what it is like to face in an American metropolis and listen to not a hen chirp, not a cricket … you hear nothing," Moore stated. "And also you begin to surprise, can I reside right here?"

Many residents of New Orleans have been asking the identical query. They went from discovering short-term properties in Houston and different Texas cities to settling down for the long-term.

Twenty years later, they've modified Houston — and Houston has modified them.

'Blessing and a curse'

Jermaine Moore met his spouse in Houston. He additionally discovered a barber from New Orleans.

John "Speedy" Riddle began reducing hair a few decade after he arrived in Houston on the age of 15.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2012x1128+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/png/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F68%2F32%2F8e54a3a943b09e1a424f1ae86b34%2Fmoore-riddle.png" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2012x1128+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F68%2F32%2F8e54a3a943b09e1a424f1ae86b34%2Fmoore-riddle.png" class="img" alt="Jermaine Moore (left) stands in his family home around 1980, more than two decades before it flooded during Hurricane Katrina. John “Speedy” Riddle (right) smiles for a picture in his family home in the early 2000s, shortly before it was destroyed during the storm." loading="lazy"/> Jermaine Moore (left) stands in his household residence round 1980, greater than twenty years earlier than it flooded throughout Hurricane Katrina. John "Speedy" Riddle (proper) smiles for an image in his household residence within the early 2000s, shortly earlier than it was destroyed through the storm. Jermaine Moore / John “Speedy” Riddle. disguise caption

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Jermaine Moore / John “Speedy” Riddle. His household residence additionally flooded throughout Katrina, and other than brief visits, his household by no means returned. Nonetheless, he finds which means within the loss.

"I'd have by no means obtained to reside the life I've skilled as much as 35 years outdated … if it would not have been for Katrina," Riddle stated.

Riddle was amongst as many as 6,000 college students from New Orleans who got here to the Houston Unbiased College District after Katrina interrupted the start of their faculty 12 months.

Riddle and Moore knew one another for less than every week earlier than the haircut, however as they shared recollections, it seemed like that they had been speaking for a lifetime.

"We search one another out for the connection," Moore stated.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x3368+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8b%2F7b%2Fb978c18a425c8bfccb85f7cd0c54%2Fhaircutphotos-07-10-25-justindoud-48.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x3368+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8b%2F7b%2Fb978c18a425c8bfccb85f7cd0c54%2Fhaircutphotos-07-10-25-justindoud-48.jpg" class="img" alt="John “Speedy” Riddle sheds tears while being interviewed about Hurricane Katrina at A Shaving Grace barbershop in the southeast Houston area in July 2025." loading="lazy"/> John "Speedy" Riddle sheds tears whereas being interviewed about Hurricane Katrina at A Shaving Grace barbershop within the southeast Houston space in July 2025. Justin Doud/Houston Public Media disguise caption

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Justin Doud/Houston Public Media The recollections of the evacuation nonetheless convey tears to Riddle's eyes — however Moore says there's extra to the story than ache.

"Katrina damage, however you are imagined to discover a blessing in a curse," Moore stated.

"I completed highschool out right here," Riddle stated, pausing the haircut. "I do not suppose I'd have — at 15, the life I used to be residing in New Orleans, the issues I obtained away with that my mother and father do not know — I would not have made it. I would not have lasted this lengthy."

"Proper, see, Houston for him at 15, confirmed him a very completely different path," Moore stated. "He misplaced his neighborhood in New Orleans — the curse. The blessing — take a look at him."

The missed evacuees

The evacuating inhabitants, like Houston, was various.

Bong Mui is a doctor and was among the many estimated 15,000 individuals from Louisiana's Vietnamese neighborhood who got here to Houston after Hurricane Katrina. His residence and household medication clinic flooded through the storm.

"I actually love New Orleans, and I actually wished to come back again," Mui stated, "however after I got here again, and I noticed that every thing was utterly destroyed … you understand, I simply could not return."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1115x836+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fea%2F5d%2F152be8f9429aae0706748bc4b31a%2Fimg-8225.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1115x836+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fea%2F5d%2F152be8f9429aae0706748bc4b31a%2Fimg-8225.jpg" class="img" alt="Bong Mui is the model for a painting by Alan Flattmann, which he keeps in the office of his clinic in Houston. The artwork was made in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina destroyed his clinic there." loading="lazy"/> Bong Mui is the mannequin for a portray by Alan Flattmann, which he retains within the workplace of his clinic in Houston. The art work was made in New Orleans earlier than Hurricane Katrina destroyed his clinic there. Dominic Anthony Walsh/Houston Public Media disguise caption

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Dominic Anthony Walsh/Houston Public Media He had fallen in love with the Crescent metropolis when he attended his first Mardi Gras celebration within the Nineteen Seventies. Over the subsequent three a long time, he was immersed within the metropolis's multiculturalism and particular occasions.

"What I miss is the tradition in New Orleans ... the jazz music ... the French, the Spanish taste ... I simply like it," Mui stated.

He was already acquainted with loss.

He was eight years outdated when Vietnam was break up in 1954, and his household left every thing behind through the transfer from the communist north to the south. 20 years later, he was finding out within the U.S. when Saigon fell, and he wasn't in a position to return.

After the hurricane in 2005, he was compelled to start out over for the third time. He introduced his household to Houston and opened a brand new clinic. He felt at residence among the many bigger Vietnamese neighborhood, which he stated was extra full of life than the fishing communities of Louisiana.

"In New Orleans, nearly all of them are fishermen and issues like that, and there is some cultural factor happening, however there's nothing as in comparison with Houston," he stated.

The Vietnamese inhabitants within the Houston space has boomed — from slightly below 60,000 in 2005 to about 140,000 in 2025, in accordance with the Pew Analysis Heart.

"I am nonetheless feeling a bit unhappy, however I am proud of my life right here," Mui stated. "I used to be in a position to be near my siblings and near my pals and, notably, I am proud of the expansion of the Vietnamese neighborhood right here."

A altering Houston

After the hurricane, not less than 100,000 individuals discovered refuge in Houston, in accordance with Jim Elliott, co-director on the Heart for Coastal Futures & Adaptive Resilience at Rice College in Houston.

"We have now to needless to say this was the most important evacuation by way of numbers and completeness in U.S. historical past," Elliott stated.

In accordance with Elliott, it is tough to place a precise determine on what number of evacuees got here to Houston. He stated the quantity may vary from 100,000 to 300,000.

Those that got here modified the tradition.

"We have now an extremely various metropolis, so what the New Orleanians did, I believe, is that they entered into this kind of gumbo, if you'll, and commenced so as to add slightly little bit of this and slightly little bit of that," Elliott stated.

It is also laborious to say what number of Katrina evacuees are nonetheless in Houston 20 years later.

However their cultural contribution is plain — from cajun flavors at crawfish boils to the extensively standard White Linen Night time block events within the Houston Heights neighborhood.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x3368+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F72%2F2e%2F22a03e804a959483488878863960%2Fhaircutphotos-07-11-25-justindoud-3.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x3368+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F72%2F2e%2F22a03e804a959483488878863960%2Fhaircutphotos-07-11-25-justindoud-3.jpg" class="img" alt="John “Speedy” Riddle pauses Jermaine Moore’s haircut to discuss his life in Houston after Hurricane Katrina." loading="lazy"/> John "Speedy" Riddle pauses Jermaine Moore's haircut to debate his life in Houston after Hurricane Katrina. Justin Doud/Houston Public Media disguise caption

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Justin Doud/Houston Public Media 20 years after Hurricane Katrina, these New Orleanians — together with Jermaine Moore and John "Speedy" Riddle — see Houston as a spot of recent beginnings, alternative and neighborhood.

In addition they see extra of New Orleans in Houston.

"The nice half that has modified — our affect. I can discover daiquiris now," Moore stated, as Riddle enthusiastically agreed. "I can discover meals like residence now … Could not discover that 20 years in the past, so there's the change. I can discover extra remnants of residence, precise residence. Twenty years in the past, we have been a fish out of water."