‘We need each other’: how a Black church and a white church joined forces after Hurricane Katrina

Mary Jones Reid (right) and Tyson Jones at Houston's Franklin Avenue Baptist church in Houston, on 17 August. The church was founded in 2007 by Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans. Photograph: Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle/Getty

Before the floods from Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city of New Orleans 20 years ago, Franklin Avenue Baptist church was booming.

“We had three morning services. We had a gymnasium, overflow rooms. Next door was the family center. There was an exercise room and library,” said the Rev Fred Luter Jr, pastor of Franklin Avenue. “We had just bought 90 acres of property. We were the talk of the town.”