A decade later, Katrina evacuees hold New Orleans close to their hearts

It has been 10 years since Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,800 people, mostly in New Orleans, where the storm surge breached the levees and flooded more than 80 percent of the city.

More than 250,000 people in New Orleans were displaced. Most of those evacuees came to Texas, including thousands in Dallas-Fort Worth, where they found jobs, enrolled in schools and became active in churches.

In the years since Katrina, many of those who left have returned to New Orleans.

While others stayed and now call North Texas home, their connection to New Orleans is in their soul.

“It’s hypnotic,” said the Rev. Jerome LeDoux, who came from New Orleans to be pastor at Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Fort Worth. “There’s no other place like it. Once you have experienced New Orleans, it follows you.”

Lance Dunbar moved with his family from New Orleans to Fort Worth after Katrina and starred at running back for Haltom High School and the University of North Texas before joining the Dallas Cowboys.

“It is home. I will say that,” Dunbar said of Dallas-Fort Worth.

“But I will never forget where I came from. It made me who I am today.”

Here are the stories of some of those who came to North Texas:

The Dallas Cowboy: ‘I will never forget where I came from’

The priest: ‘Once you have experienced New Orleans, it follows you’

The loan officer: ‘A lot of people can no longer afford to live there’

The educator/preacher: ‘It was stressful. It was indescribable’

The fire marshal: ‘Everything we did in New Orleans, we do it here’

The accountant/chef: ‘There are a lot more opportunities in Texas’

This story was originally published August 21, 2015 at 11:21 AM with the headline "A decade later, Katrina evacuees hold New Orleans close to their hearts."