Following Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on August 29, 2005, Americans were bombarded with media images of the physical damage inflicted upon New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. Consequently, we have an acute awareness of the storm’s damage to property and homes, but considerably fewer insights as to how the storm changed the social conditions in those homes and neighborhoods. Anecdotally, there have been stories about families choosing to live in the areas where they resettled and a reluctance of some to return to an area still rebuilding its basic infrastructure. However, other stories have emerged about the commitment of others to return and to make these areas their home again. This paper will explore these competing ideas by examining with data from the American Community Survey (ACS) how families and  households in the Gulf Coast region, and especially New Orleans, looked prior to Katrina and how they have changed as a consequence of this natural disaster. This paper will also explore the determinants of being back in New Orleans one year later for both adults and children.