TEXAS — Twenty years ago, New Orleanians went to cities across Texas for safety. Hurricane Katrina’s impact on the Gulf Coast changed people’s lives forever.

Sonya Wallace-Banieh embodies what it means to be from New Orleans, Louisiana, with her love of the culture, the Saints and her family. 

“No matter where I live, New Orleans will always be home,” said Wallace.

But for the last 20 years, Houston, Texas, has become home, her family evacuating before Hurricane Katrina hit their hometown. 

“We got here, we were waiting to hear from FEMA about the housing they were providing,” Wallace said. “So, it was about 35 of us all at my sister’s house.”

They were not alone. In the days before and after the storm, more than 200,000 people came to Houston. The majority were from New Orleans.

“We were here before it happened,” Wallace said. “But some of them had gone through the worst of it. They’d been bussed in. Had stayed in the Superdome or had lost family members.”

Many people didn’t have transportation or the means to evacuate. Across the Gulf Coast, at least 1,300 people died during Hurricane Katrina.

“There was the storm and then there was the additional aftermath,” Wallace said. “The aftermath is what caused more damage than anything.”

With so many displaced, thousands opted to stay in Texas permanently — like the Favorite family.

“We had our houses and lives,” said New Orleans native Terryl Favorite Sr. “We thought we were just leaving for the weekend.”

“All you can do is just thank God, that God loved you enough to convict your heart to leave,” said New Orleans native Linda Favorite.

Linda Favorite also left for Houston before the hurricane hit.

“That day my son woke me up in that hotel room though, and I saw that water rising,” Linda said. “We didn’t scream or nothing, but we cried. Oh, did we boo-hoo. Thats was unbelievable.”

The home where she and her high school sweetheart raised their family was gone.

“To start completely over,” Linda said. “My furniture, you know everything I owned.”

An armoire is all she has left.

“Now when we got it, we had mold all down here,” Linda said. “Of course we had to scrub it. My son had to scrub it up for me.”

In the two decades since Katrina, Linda says the community they’ve built at church makes Houston feel like home.

“Just the love that they gave me, me and my family,” Linda said. “And I saw other people coming in that I know was from New Orleans. And we’re still there because how much they showed forth love towards us.” 

Although Houston was a new city to them, both Wallace and Linda agree relocating to Texas came with new opportunities for their children. 

“I’m not saying New Orleans didn’t have those things there,” Linda said. “But I don’t know if they would have got exposed to it to the point that they would step out into it.” 

“With Houston, even with Texas, the opportunities were bigger and better,” Wallace said.

Leaving home always comes with challenges, but staying in Texas isn’t something they regret.

“There’s always functions and events, so there’s always something to go back to,” Wallace said.

“I’m excited about living in Houston,” Linda said. “I wish I could get a couple of other people to move here.”