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Three Years Since Hurricane Katrina
08/29/08 - 09:27 AM
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Three years ago today, thousands of Gulf Coast residents found their homes and lives destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

The powerful storm devastated parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  About eighteen hundred people were killed across five states.

Many of the displaced found themselves scattered into other states, including here in the panhandle.

Dawn Kleindienst and her family ended up leaving their home in a New Orleans suburb because of Katrina. 

“To get what was normally a 3 hour drive outside of New Orleans, it took us 12.5 hours to get there,” says Kleindienst.

She says the family had fallen in love with Panama City Beach and came here once they realized they couldn’t go home.

“My husband stayed back once we were able to get back home, to help with the recovery efforts, and my son and I stayed here, and it was the first time we’d ever been separated, and so it was rough,” she says.

Dawn, who now works at Surfside Middle School, says her son’s progress in school… and community support prompted her family to stay.

“We can’t ask for better. We have a good life here,” she says.

But she still reflects on the consequences of Katrina. “I think the greatest impact was to the middle class people. We were faced with decisions that we never had to be faced with before, so we were really, very ill prepared.”

Today, about 200 people attended a remembrance ceremony in New Orleans.  People rang bells at 9:38 a.m., the time the levee breaches are believed to have started.