A man known as the "Trashcan Wizard" sings and dances his way through the French Quarter in New Orleans, keeping his beloved city clean, until Hurricane Katrina's devastation nearly causes him to lose his spirit.

"In seventeenth-century Peru, St. Martin de Porres was torn from his body after death. His bones were pillaged as relics, and his spirit was said to inhabit those bones. Four centuries later, amid the havoc of Hurricane Katrina, nineteen-year-old Ham escaps New Orleans with his only valued possession: a pendant handed down from his foster mother, Miss Pearl. There's something about the pendant that has always gripped him, and the curiosity of it has...

Bayou Perdu, a tiny fishing town way, way down in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, is home to sixteen-year-old Evangeline Riley. She has her best friends, Kendra and Danielle; wise, beloved Mamere; and back-to-back titles in the under-sixteen fishing rodeo. But, dearest to her heart, she has the peace that comes only when she takes her skiff out to where there is nothing but sky and air and water and wings. It's a small life, but it is Evangeline's....

Barry's family prepares to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina hits, but when his little sister gets very sick, they are forced to stay home and face the floodwater that sweeps Barry away.

"When a fragile young woman refuses to leave New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina approaches, her parents are forced to go without her, setting off a chain of events that leaves their marriage in shambles and their daughter catatonic, the victim or perpetrator of some unknown violent act"-- Provided by publisher.

The story of a Latin American science fiction writer and the lives her lost manuscript unites decades later in post-Katrina New Orleans. In 1929 in New Orleans, a Dominican immigrant named Adana Moreau writes a science fiction novel. The novel earns rave reviews, and Adana begins a sequel. Then she falls gravely ill. Just before she dies, she destroys the only copy of the manuscript. Decades later in Chicago, Saul Drower is cleaning out his dead grandfather's...

Thirteen-year-old aspiring fashion designer Reesie Boone is eagerly anticipating her birthday when she can finally sew her first outfit on Ma Maw's sewing machine. But Hurricane Katrina hits her city of New Orleans while Reesie is home alone, and she is forced to escape in a boat along with her elderly neighbor, Miss Martine. Although Reesie is finally rejoined with her family, they still have a long journey to undertake before they can return home....

"A young girl uses crystal meth to escape the pain of losing her mother and grandmother in Hurricane Katrina, and then struggles to get over her addiction"-- Provided by publisher.

In New Orleans' Ninth Ward, twelve-year-old Lanesha, who can see spirits, and her adopted grandmother have no choice but to stay and weather the storm as Hurricane Katrina bears down upon them.

Eleven-year-old Hollis Williams, his grandmother, and his three siblings struggle to survive Hurricane Katrina after they elect to stay put in their home in the Ninth Ward. After being separated from his grandmother and one sibling in the aftermath of the hurricane, Hollis puts his efforts into reuniting his family.