Tanisha and her grandmother, Earnestine Dangerfield, helped rescue their neighbor, Nita LaGarde, when the floodwaters struck five years ago. They carried LaGarde, then 89, to an attic, then a rooftop, and finally across a bridge in an icebox.
The iconic picture was snapped at the New Orleans Convention Center, where the trio ended up along with thousands of others. They eventually were evacuated to Houston, where they settled in a donated home. LaGarde, whom Tanisha called "Mama Nita," succumbed to cancer a year ago.
Tanisha is getting good grades, but has never forgotten Katrina.
"When I go to sleep, I dream about it. It's like an open book when I see all the people talking and screaming about their children," she said.
Read more at ABC News.
Hurricane Katrina
Rhonda Braden walks through the destruction in her childhood neighborhood in Long Beach, Miss., on Aug. 31, 2005. Hurricane Katrina erased much of the Mississippi Gulf Coast's past, but the deadly storm also created a blank canvas and a historic opportunity for reinventing cities.
Volunteer crews rescue the Taylor family from the roof of their Suburban, which became trapped on US 90 in Bay St. Louis, Miss., because of flooding during Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 28, 2005.
A satellite image taken at 4:33 EDT on Aug. 28, 2005, shows Hurricane Katrina about 275 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Specialist Manuel Ramos, a National Guard soldier from San Diego, rescues Edgar Hollingsworth, 74, from his home in New Orleans on Sept. 13, 2005.
Tanisha Belvin, 5, holds the hand of fellow Hurricane Katrina victim Nita LaGarde, 89, as they are evacuated from the Convention Center in New Orleans on Sept. 3, 2005. Hundreds of people waited several days to be evacuated.
Residents wait on a rooftop to be rescued from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina on Sept. 1, 2005, in New Orleans. At an estimated $81 billion in property damage, it is the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. But to many, especially to those in greater New Orleans, this catastrophe was anything but an act of God.
Some of the thousands of displaced residents take cover from Hurricane Katrina at the Superdome, a last-resort shelter, in New Orleans around midnight on Aug. 28, 2005. Officials called for a mandatory evacuation of the city, but many residents remained.
Residents walk through floodwaters on Canal Street in New Orleans on Aug. 30, 2005, after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.
Milvertha Hendricks, 84, waits in the rain with other flood victims outside the Convention Center in New Orleans on Sept. 1, 2005.
A woman walks through chest-deep water in New Orleans on Aug. 30, 2005, as floodwaters continue to rise after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.
