Its been nearly 15 years since Hurricane Katrina made landfall

Jacksonville, FL. — Its been nearly 15 years since Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

Memories and videos of the aftermath, can be difficult to watch and relive.

One local man who moved to Jacksonville from one of the hardest hit areas said he still remembers the storm’s destruction.

Robert Reinheimer said remembering one catastrophe while being caught up in another can become an emotional roller coaster.

Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005.

With the Coronavirus pandemic and the potential threat of two storms in the Gulf of Mexico this week, remembering Hurricane Katrina can be especially hard

Hurricane Katrina can be hard, especially for survivors like Robert Reinheimer and his family.

“We were going to ride out. We took the storm serious Aug. 26, it was a day like today, it changes your life” Reinheimer said.

Less than an hour away from New Orleans, his family’s home in Waveland, Mississippi was destroyed by the storm.

“We were pounded by the waves and a storm surge of 30 feet plus 25 feet of waves on top of that” said Reinheimer.

He said riding out the storm was just the start of the nightmares that followed because he thought Hurricane Katrina would be like many other tropical storms that hit his hometown.

“It was a storm like anything I’ve been through” he said.

The storm damaged homes and left hundreds of thousands of people in shelters. He would turn the negative experience into a positive one and wrote a book.

He said it was therapeutic.

Now 15 years after the storm, Reinhemer is embracing his new life in Jacksonville.

No matter if you lived in a mansion or a shack, you had nothing after the storm and you had to pull together to make it.

Cox Media Group