STORM AFTER THE

10 years ago Hurricane Katrina abruptly changed thousands of lives, some right here in our neighborhood.

AA decade after she hit the gulf coast — busting flood walls and washing away neighborhoods across Louisiana and Mississippi, upending lives and ending almost 2,000 — Katrina’s name still conjures up nightmare images of homes underwater and the Superdome crammed with shocked, suffering humans.

In the months that followed, Lake Highlands weathered the residual impact.

Of the millions left homeless, thousands landed in Dallas. Hundreds of new students enrolled in Richardson ISD, more than 120 at Lake Highlands High School alone. Many eventually returned home, but others built new lives here.

“You can tell by their accents sometimes, when you are in a restaurant or the grocery store,” one Katrina survivor says. “I’ll be in line and hear a New Orleans accent and think maybe they are one of the ones who stayed here in Lake Highlands.”

Of the several people we interviewed — all of them connected by Hurricane Katrina — most say they can’t believe it’s been 10 years. The memories feel fresh and there is work still to be done