REMEMBERING KATRINA

PHOTOS BY DANNY FULGENCIO

CBS 11 newsman Steve Pickett played a key role in our August 2015 feature about Hurricane Katrina survivors who fled to the Lake Highlands area after the storm, published on the 10-year anniversary of the disaster. Pickett traveled to Louisiana to cover Hurricane Katrina and ultimately became a part of an historic event. While photographing Pickett at his Lake Highlands home, we learned he also is an accomplished photographer — the black-andwhite portraits in the background are his. He and his wife, Rachel Roberts-Pickett collect New Orleans-inspired art, also displayed on Pickett’s wall. He shared his portfolio, which included themes from cityscapes and nature photography to celebrity portraits and artistic nudes.

Photographed for the same package was Lake Highlands native Farrah Gafford, whose life was upended by Katrina. The flood shut down the PH.D program she attended at Tulane University, delaying her graduation until 2008. She continued to research Katrina as it related to urban sociology, race and ethnicity, and she was a valuable source in our story about Katrina survivors. She taught sociology at Xavier University of Louisiana until 2014, when she gave birth to daughter Bailey Zuri Cambrice. Then she moved to Houston, where we photographed her, only because our photographer happened to be traveling through South Texas while we were working on the story (being a hyper-local publication, we enjoy zero travel budget).