Katrina victims relocated in Charlotte remember devastation

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — This week marks a decade since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi when it came ashore on Aug. 29, 2005.
 
New Orleans has never really returned to normal after thousands died there and thousands more created new lives somewhere else, including in Charlotte.

SECTION: Hurricane Katrina: 10 Years Later 

Eyewitness News reporter Ken Lemon sat down with some of those survivors who now call the Queen City home.
 
"Do I miss New Orleans? Yeah, a lot," Martine Johnson said.
 
They know the city will never be the same.
  
"It's like you are trying recapture a time that is no more; in a place that is no more," Thea Winnick said.
 
Gwen Brown has photographs of her home in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina.
 
"We were uprooted," Brown said.
 
She left expecting to find it the same way.
 
"We brought overnight bag because we thought we would be back the next day," Brown said.
 
They all lost their homes either that day or when the levies broke.
 
Carolyn Baumann's home was destroyed.

"I went home and literally fell on the ground," Baumann said.
 
She had a daughter in North Carolina.

Winnick's husband, Renaldo Turnbull, played football for the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers.
 
Restaurateurs Martine and Lucius Johnson got much-needed help relocating from a Charlotte church.

They all settled in Charlotte.

Jazz singer Pat Cohen struggled with the adjustment.

"It took me about six years to pull myself mentally back together," Cohen said. "It was like being in Oz."
    
Katrina taught them not to be complacent.

"Always prepare for a rainy day," Baumann said.

Two billboards in Charlotte are commemorating the impact of the deadly storm and read "Ten Years Stronger." They are on Interstates 85 and 77.

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