NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, triggering levee failures that flooded 80 percent of the city, many are extolling the city’s recovery.

But the yearslong rebuilding of New Orleans and surrounding areas was not guaranteed.

Mary Landrieu was one of Louisiana’s U.S. senators when Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005. The Democrat fought to get Congress to provide billions in federal funds for the rebuilding of the city.

“Our delegation led the strongest recovery of any recovery ever in the history of this country,” Landrieu said Monday (Aug. 25) while appearing at an event at the University of New Orleans. “When these numbers are tallied up, according to outside experts, it will be well in advance of $72 billion that came back to this community (

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