LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Channel 13 is continuing to recognize the 20-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on the Gulf Coast, but also the impacts that were felt more than a thousand miles away, right here in the Las Vegas Valley.
I sat down with a family who moved to Las Vegas to start a new life after Katrina moved through their Louisiana hometown.
VIDEO: Guy Tannenbaum gets a local perspective on Hurricane Katrina after woman left Louisiana to start a new life for her family in Las Vegas
"We had plans to move here already, but little did we know that Katrina was going to bring us much sooner," Ingrid Leal said.
Twenty years ago, Leal and her then 7-month-old daughter Alexandra Abdo lived with their family in Kenner, Louisiana—about 12 miles from Downtown New Orleans—when Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on the Gulf Coast.
They evacuated to Texas when they realized what lay ahead.
"[Alexandra's] grandmother turned around and looked at me and said, 'Well, there's no reason for you to go back home, so you're leaving to Las Vegas,'" Leal said. "[She] booked a plane ticket for us, and we've been here since the day after Katrina."
I asked Leal what it was like getting settled in those first few days after the move.
"It was definitely a different life experience," she responded. "I was 24, and had always lived with my family. Coming to a big city, being on my own, living on my own, having a baby, not having family here–it was definitely not easy."
Katrina devastated her hometown, and now, 20 years later, Leal has never left her new home right here in Las Vegas."
"Actually it wasn't even a question," Leal said. "It wasn't even a thought—I'm here, I'm going to stay here, and we're going to make it work."
"I do tell people we moved here because of Katrina," Alexandra, now 20 years old, said. "It's crazy, it's an attention grabber for sure. I don't remember anything about it. I wish I did."
Alexandra is now all grown up, a Southeast Career and Technical Academy alum and currently a junior at UNLV. Her 15-year-old sister, Gabriella Ghione, goes to Silverado High School.
"I heard a lot of stories about how rough it was in the beginning moving here," Alexandra said. "They really emphasized how hard Katrina was, and also with my family in Louisiana, I ask them questions a lot because I'm pretty curious."
I asked Ingrid's daughters what it means to them that Las Vegas took in their family two decades ago, and Gabriella had a profound response: "Well, if Hurricane Katrina hadn't happened, I wouldn't have been born."
While Katrina might've changed the way their story was written, Leal's family hasn't forgotten their Bayou roots, despite planting new, lifelong ones here in the desert.
"I felt like this is my home," Leal said. "I think I stuck around because this city always has something new going on. There's nothing negative I can say, other than this is our home now."
