Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 storm, devastated the Gulf Coast during the late summer of 2005, leaving behind over $100 billion in damage and nearly 2,000 lives lost in its wake. New Orleans, Louisiana, experienced particular devastation as a result of the storm, which seemed likely to forever alter the city’s demographics as rebuilding efforts got underway. In an editorial written by Adolph L. Reed Jr., the New Orleans native and professor of political science explores the impact of the city’s deep-rooted racial and socioeconomic divisions a year after the hurricane destroyed many of its poorer, predominantly Black neighborhoods. Reed takes note of the various ways property owners and developers who wielded substantial influence before Katrina succeeded in accruing ever more power in the storm’s aftermath, often at the expense of Black residents.