Hurricane Katrina ransacked the lives of more than 1 million people in metro New Orleans 20 years ago.

The storm caused so much devastation that then-U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert questioned whether New Orleans even ought to survive.

Against this backdrop, then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco and then-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin each created a board to try to figure out how Louisiana and New Orleans could not only survive but come back stronger with badly needed federal aid.

That work was recalled Saturday night at a reunion of members and staffers of those two blue-ribbon committees, the Louisiana Recovery Authority and the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, as well as three former members of Congress from the time.

Today, of course, restaurants are thriving throughout metro New Orle

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