--- title: A Child of Katrina Remembers Who Saved Him | TIME description: At age three, Rodney Lomax was stranded for five days living on the interstate overpass near the Superdome with his grandmother and neighbors after Hurricane Katrina flooded his New Orleans home. His grandmother, Rhonda Lomax, shielded him from what horrors she could. In the wake of the storm she made sure he got therapy and proper support as she worried he had posttraumatic stress syndrome. Twenty years later, Rodney still remembers the fear, but also the protection and love that saved him. Photojournalist Kathleen Flynn first met Rodney and Rhonda on the interstate overpass in 2005. She reconnected with them in 2010 and has produced several stories about their lives since. canonical: https://time.com/video/PibcN7ny/ og:title: A Child of Katrina Remembers Who Saved Him og:description: At age three, Rodney Lomax was stranded for five days living on the interstate overpass near the Superdome with his grandmother and neighbors after Hurricane Katrina flooded his New Orleans home. His grandmother, Rhonda Lomax, shielded him from what horrors she could. In the wake of the storm she made sure he got therapy and proper support as she worried he had posttraumatic stress syndrome. Twenty years later, Rodney still remembers the fear, but also the protection and love that saved him. Photojournalist Kathleen Flynn first met Rodney and Rhonda on the interstate overpass in 2005. She reconnected with them in 2010 and has produced several stories about their lives since. og:url: https://time.com/video/PibcN7ny/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PibcN7ny/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Child of Katrina Remembers Who Saved Him twitter:description: At age three, Rodney Lomax was stranded for five days living on the interstate overpass near the Superdome with his grandmother and neighbors after Hurricane Katrina flooded his New Orleans home. His grandmother, Rhonda Lomax, shielded him from what horrors she could. In the wake of the storm she made sure he got therapy and proper support as she worried he had posttraumatic stress syndrome. Twenty years later, Rodney still remembers the fear, but also the protection and love that saved him. Photojournalist Kathleen Flynn first met Rodney and Rhonda on the interstate overpass in 2005. She reconnected with them in 2010 and has produced several stories about their lives since. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PibcN7ny/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # A Child of Katrina Remembers Who Saved Him > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=7f8d6239-b263-4120-ae37-9afd022ff3e7&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=7f8d6239-b263-4120-ae37-9afd022ff3e7&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: A Child of Katrina Remembers Who Saved Him [Watch (HLS stream): A Child of Katrina Remembers Who Saved Him](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PibcN7ny.m3u8) (6:51)  _Published 2025-08-28. At age three, Rodney Lomax was stranded for five days living on the interstate overpass near the Superdome with his grandmother and neighbors after Hurricane Katrina flooded his New Orleans home. His grandmother, Rhonda Lomax, shielded him from what horrors she could. In the wake of the storm she made sure he got therapy and proper support as she worried he had posttraumatic stress syndrome. Twenty years later, Rodney still remembers the fear, but also the protection and love that saved him. Photojournalist Kathleen Flynn first met Rodney and Rhonda on the interstate overpass in 2005. She reconnected with them in 2010 and has produced several stories about their lives since._ --- Aug 29, 2025 2:42 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [A Child in Utah Told His Class He's Thankful for His Dads' Decision to Adopt Him. His Teacher Told Him His Family Is 'a Sin'](/video/iKpPveHo/) ### A Child in Utah Told His Class He's Thankful for His Dads' Decision to Adopt Him. His Teacher Told Him His Family Is 'a Sin' [TIME Remembers: Hurricane Katrina](/video/Ja7xxn1L/) ### TIME Remembers: Hurricane Katrina [Miami Remembers Katrina, Thinks Climate Change](/video/YcVN4fYP/) ### Miami Remembers Katrina, Thinks Climate Change --- ## Transcript I just know that what I saw during Katrina, it was nothing that I'm just going to forget it like that. I still have a flashback about it. I could see myself on that bridge with a red t shirt on. I had a soccer ball in my hand. I seen the water coming. Lots of people was dying. It was awful. I know my grandmother was my protector. She just made sure like I was safe. It was a blessing. I made it out. This is the place to be. The food, the cake, the people barbecuing. And Berlin. Potatoes and corn and turkey. And the crab barrel. And this, that and Another. We have a great time. Little Rodney. He's a little hellion when he wants to be. The only grandchild. Period. I love him to death. Hey! Leave my baby. My grandmother was a great woman. She made sure like I didn't have to want a worry. She enrolled me in one of the best schools in New Orleans, Louisiana. I was on the honor roll. Ten times. 100 equals one, 1000. If it wasn't for my grandmother, like, you know, like I wouldn't be able to sit here and tell y'all this. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish I had better news for you, but we are facing a storm that most of us have feared. Nearly a week after the levee broke in New Orleans, rescuers continue to pull victims off rooftops. With the death toll expected to climb into the thousands. Five days on the bridge in the hot sun. We had cardboard that we opened up to sleep on. Well, we didn't really have enough food for ourselves because we were feeding them. We did without eating till the helicopter came dropping food down and everybody just grabbing like something you would see on television. Even though we didn't, the children ate three times a day. You see, the kids kept us straight because we had to be strong for the kids. I remember my grandmother telling me, don't look down, just don't look down in the water. And when I did look down, I just remember the body just floating. The people was doing all they could. Climbing on buildings, climbing on roofs. You know, people look at the government like, damn, you supposed to assist us. Everybody can't get on the helicopter. Everybody can't get out. Everybody not gonna make it out. But after he started therapy, he was in a dark place. Then he had this thing of fear, of abandonment. I couldn't go to the bathroom without him standing outside the door. If I walked two steps, he was on my heel. He was suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. It's not the same New Orleans we knew before the storm. It's like our whole life has changed. When I was 19 years old, I made it out of New Orleans. I moved to Texas. I was getting ready to lay down one night. I just had the feeling that whole night. Like something was wrong with one of my family members. So I woke up the next day. I got the phone call. My grandmother passed away. So when I got the phone call, I just came back to New Orleans, you know? Everybody I grew up with is in jail. Or they did. It's the same mainly in New Orleans. Like it's easy to get in trouble, but it's hard to get out of trouble. I was doing things I knew that wasn't me. I was living the way. That wasn't me. My grandmother, she was like, you keep doing what you're doing. You're gonna have to lay in that bed and make it. Once you unmake that bed, it's hard to make that bed back up. But after my grandmother passed, I really got in tune. Like, spiritually, with God. Like Isaiah chapter 54, verse 11 through 17. There's no weapon formed against me shall prosper. I just couldn't let my grandmother or my family members down like. I have two daughters, you know, very smart, very beautiful, very crazy. And I just miss being with my two daughters every day, laughing, you know, like walking them in strollers. I know, like, what's happening now is not for long. It's not nothing permanent. But my daughters always knew, like, you know, my dad be working hard. My dream for my daughters is to have a better life than I ever had. I see myself, like, literally owning my own business, owning my own house, you know, doing what I really love to do. I don't just work like, you know, for minimum minimum wage, like, you see what I'm saying? But how you want to get to level 12 and you don't even know what level 11 feel like, or level ten feel like. You know what I'm saying? You gotta go up here. Yo, what is up. In New Orleans if you let negativity dwell in your head? It's going to be hard for you to to be somebody in life or somebody just positive or influencing or, you know. Alright. Come on. I ain't going to hold you like I used to. You're too big now, bro. You just got to keep going. You can't let. You cannot let nothing stop you. Like. I don't really like to talk about the Katrina story, because some people didn't make it out, and I did. So when it comes to my head, I'll just be like. This story is for the people that's dead. This story is for my grandmother. That helped me make it out. To the park. I go. Okay, now. Go to the park. If you write it correctly, how would it go? I go to the park. With my grandmother. Instilled in me. What I will instill in my daughters is respect, honesty, loyalty and to be there for people. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A Child of Katrina Remembers Who Saved Him","description":"At age three, Rodney Lomax was stranded for five days living on the interstate overpass near the Superdome with his grandmother and neighbors after Hurricane Katrina flooded his New Orleans home. \n\nHis grandmother, Rhonda Lomax, shielded him from what horrors she could. In the wake of the storm she made sure he got therapy and proper support as she worried he had posttraumatic stress syndrome. Twenty years later, Rodney still remembers the fear, but also the protection and love that saved him. \n\nPhotojournalist Kathleen Flynn first met Rodney and Rhonda on the interstate overpass in 2005. 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