VIDEO: Finding A New Hometown After Hurricane Katrina

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The flooding and devastation in Texas are eerie reminders of the storm that hit New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast twelve years ago today.

Hurricane Katrina relocated thousands of people, causing many to find new hometowns.

Desiree and Colin Krieger are one of those couples.

They thought Columbus was just going to be a temporary stop, but it ended up being a permanent one.

Unlike them, others planted their roots in Houston, Texas, and are dealing with another devastating disaster, just a little over ten years later.

Desiree and Colin Krieger were born and raised in New Orleans.

They met there, married there, and moved from there, settling in Ocean Springs. Then came Katrina, and everything changed.

“That’s far enough from New Orleans, we don’t want to go any further, this is it and then, the hurricane hit and we made our way up here and we’re like okay, well, we’ll stay here for a little while and then we’ll move back down, but that didn’t happen,” says Desiree Krieger.

That’s how the Krieger’s came to Columbus .

It’s where they celebrated their first wedding anniversary and started their family of five.

“When we decided to live in Columbus after the storm, and embrace the whole Golden Triangle, what we liked about the city was the old houses and the closeness and everybody was very welcoming here, so we started having our own shindigs, our own block parties, and we really, really embraced the ‘bloom where your planted’ philosophy,” says Colin Krieger.

The couple says bringing a little more of ‘The Big Easy’ to ‘The Friendly City’ is how they repay the town for taking them in over ten years ago.

“The community is our family and you know, who wouldn’t want to have your family get together all the time and have fun and you know, eat and have a good time and that’s what New Orleans is to us, getting together and having a good time with your family,” says Desiree Krieger.

While the Krieger’s continue striving in the Golden Triangle, other Hurricane Katrina transplants are living a devastating version of déjà vu.

“A lot of the people that evacuated from Katrina, got sent to Houston and they were displaced to Houston, and a lot of them stayed there because they couldn’t afford to come back to New Orleans, so a lot of those people that live there are from New Orleans and are going through it again, twelve years later,” says Desiree Krieger.

It’s an unimaginable experience that hits close to home for many, bringing back memories of hardship.

“The best thing you can do is pray and donate some money to some good causes. The best thing that happened to us when we got up here was Salvation Army and the Red Cross and several churches in town sought us out and I think it’s a good time to take some action on your own,” says Colin Krieger.

Even though the Krieger’s now call Columbus home, they still take monthly trips to Nola to visit old friends and family.