Buying the House on Flood Street

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina swallowed the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans whole. When the waters finally receded, Robert Green came back to find his mother's house — the house where she had died in the storm — reduced to a concrete slab and splintered wood. Neighbors left. Block after block emptied out. City planners openly debated whether the neighborhood should be bulldozed entirely and converted to green space.…