Dr. Bob
Robert A. Thomas, Ph.D.
Professor of Environmental Communication
From: Lockhart, TX (Louisiana resident since 1958)
Katrina Landfall: Metairie, LA
Eugenio “Gene” Hernandez III
Class of 2007
From: Miami, Florida. (New Orleans resident since 2003)
Katrina Landfall: Lafayette, LA
David W. Robinson-Morris, Ph.D.
Class of 2006
Galveston, Texas
Katrina Landfall: Galveston, Texas
Amy Sins
Class of 1998
From: Metairie, LA (raised in Gonzalez and Prairieville)
Katrina Landfall: Chicago, IL
Madeleine M. Landrieu, J.D. '87, H '05
Dean of the College of Law
From: New Orleans, LA
Katrina Landfall: Baton Rouge, LA
Kurt Bindelwald
Assistant to the Provost
From: New Orleans, LA
Biever Hall (Resident Chaplain)
Alicia A. Bourque, Ph.D.
Vice President of Student Affairs
From: Baton Rouge
Katrina Landfall: Slidell, LA
Kyle J. Gregore, SMSGT (ret.)
Loyola Director of Facilities
From: New Orleans, LA
Katrina Landfall: New Orleans, LA
Xavier A. Cole, Ed.D.
President, Loyola University New Orleans
From: Biloxi, MS
Katrina Landfall: Baltimore, MD (working at Loyola University Maryland)
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Rediscover how Loyola navigated Katrina’s aftermath in real time through archival media and records.
A Streetcar Named Inspire
The Maroon
The Wolf, 2006
The Wolf, 2007
Texas National Guard At Loyola
About this Project
This project was created by Loyola University New Orleans’ Office of Marketing and Communications, in collaboration with the generous faculty, staff, alumni, and community members who entrusted us with their reflections and were willing to share them openly.
Its intent is simple but profound: to capture the memories and reflections that reveal how our community endured Katrina and how we grew in its wake. This is not a memorial, but a mosaic: a living digital archive that celebrates connection, shared humanity, remembrance, and rebirth. By gathering these accounts, we honor the values that guided us through the storm and continue to shape us today.
Together, these testimonies bear witness to who we are—who we have become—twenty years later.
The title “We Made It” draws inspiration from the streetcar installation that stands in Loyola’s Peace Quad. Gifted by the Class of 2008, the installation celebrated both the return of Loyola students to campus and the restoration of streetcar service on St. Charles Avenue—two milestones that arrived almost simultaneously, early signs of budding triumph over Katrina’s devastation and the city’s first steps toward normalcy. Today, it symbolizes the shared resilience of a university and a city moving forward together.
Special thanks to Mickey Gaidos for capturing many of these stories for posterity, and to Janine Smith and Loyola Archives for their assistance in researching and gathering the voices and visuals of our history—fragments preserved in print, media, and image—that reveal who we were in the moment.
We hope this collection will serve as a resource for those who, twenty years from today, look back to see how Katrina’s impact continues to shape our university, our city, and our region nearly a half century after landfall; and as a reminder of what is most precious, most enduring, and most worth protecting in this place we call home.
Beyond Loyola: Other Stories of Katrina
- After the Flood: Hurricane Katrina Remembered
WWNO Music Inside Out
https://musicinsideout.wwno.org/after-the-flood/ - The Katrina 20 Collection
The Times-Picayune / NOLA.com
https://www.nola.com/news/katrina/ - The Katrina Files
The Historic New Orleans Collection
https://www.hnoc.org/research/katrina-archive - New Orleans 20 Years After Hurricane Katrina
The Brookings Institution
https://www.brookings.edu/collection/new-orleans-20-years-after-hurricane-katrina/