Two decades after Hurricane Katrina, Houston pastor Shannon Verrett reflected on the devastating storm, the choas of evacuating and the heartbreak of personal loss. “Most of the time when you're going through traumatic experiences in your life, you don't even know how strong your faith is. But when you weather the storm—when you're on the other side of through you begin to see: He had me back then. I was stronger than I knew,” Verrett, a pastor at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in Houston, told COURIER Texas. Katrina struck Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005, killing 1,392 people and causing $125 billion in damages. Tens of thousands of New Orleans residents, like Verrett, evacuated to Houston.