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Hurricane Katrina survivors in Houston offer shelter to New Orleans residents
HOUSTON — Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, Oprah Winfrey and her viewer-supported Angel Network collected $15 million to help hurricane victims.
Nicole Johnston and Patricia McGinnis were among the first residents to move into Winfrey’s Angel Lane in southwest Houston after Katrina.
“We have been touched by an angel,” Johnston said.
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Over the years, a lot of the original Angel Lane families have moved away, but a few still in the neighborhood are opening their doors to their friends and family weathering New Orleans’ next storm.
“We have enough room,” said McGinnis, who has several generations of family still in Louisiana. “If they need to, we have enough room for it. All they have to do is make it here.”
People who just moved into “the neighborhood that Oprah built” will never know the kindness that created the homes but, as long as Johnston and McGinnis are around, they’ll be paying it forward.
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