SIMMESPORT, La. — A farming community built for evacuees of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina has become a haven for families driven from their homes by river flooding that has hit states from Arkansas to Louisiana.
Twenty-six families have moved into the 900-acre enclave because their towns were threatened by flooding from the Mississippi River and smaller rivers connected to it. The haven informally known as Canadaville was created by the head of Canadian auto parts maker Magna International. It had a onetime population of about 200 hurricane-displaced residents, but that had dwindled to just a handful.
Tonya Nelson, 39, one of the few Katrina evacuees still there, said she recognized the look on the newcomers’ faces. “I can understand what they’re going through because I’ve been through it myself,” she said.
