Summary: Felicia Lipp [FL], age 16, was six weeks from turning fifteen when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. She is now in Katy, going to Southern League school with two of her cousins. When FL was eight, Nancy and Stephen Lipp adopted FL and her older brother. Not a day goes by that she doesn’t appreciate her adoptive parents. At the time of the storm, FL was living near the University of New Orleans in Gentilly with her family, and was a week and a half into her tenth grade year at St. Francis Cabrini. Hurricane Katrina’s destruction to FL’s home, her neighborhood, the parks she played in, her school, her church, and how it dispersed her friends was extremely difficult for FL. Yet she mentions the many positive opportunities and experiences she has been able to have by coming to Houston. FL describes their exodus to Houston, as well as when she returned to her flooded home and destroyed neighborhood in Lakeview. Although the entire experience was traumatic and very sad for FL, she repeatedly mentions how grateful she is that everyone in her family survived. Katrina reminded FL of the importance that family holds for her.