On Hurricane Katrina's 19th anniversary

Nineteen years ago, I was sheltering at the Best Western in Wiggins, Mississippi with my family as Hurricane Katrina ripped open the world around me.

I was 16 years old, and my mom worked as the manager of the hotel, which was completely booked with people from Pascagoula to Bay St. Louis. Wiggins was a small town, but the first you’d reach heading north…