In retrospect, it was probably hubris that kept Christan Theresa Poret and her family in New Orleans after Mayor Ray Nagin warned everybody to get out of town as Hurricane Katrina gained strength on Aug. 28, 2005.

“I kinda blew it off as just another warning,” Poret said. “We got hurricanes all the time. I figured that we would get some rain, the storm would turn and everything would be back to normal.”

Nothing was normal about Katrina.

Meah Poret and her grandmother Roslyn Poret in front of the same New Orleans home that would be flooded out with them in it months before Hurricane Katrina hit. (Photo courtesy Christan Theresa Poret)
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The storm killed more than 1,200 mostly black and poor people along the Gulf Coast and caused more than a billion dollars of damage.

Poret lost everything. So why does she feel like she was one of the lucky one?

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