A resident of New Orleans for more than 30 years, Joan Finlay-Sayles left the city 20 years ago, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit.

She gassed up her car and left it in the garage with a full tank, thinking she’d return home.

Less than a week after the storm ravaged New Orleans, Finlay-Sayles was in an Alabama hotel when she learned there was no home to return to, and that it was impossible to get back to the flooded city.

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