NATCHEZ — The story of Katrina in the Miss-Lou had very little to do with wind and rain and everything to do with dollar signs and helping hands.

The Aug. 23, 2005, hurricane left electricity out and a few downed trees in the area, but its lasting impact was in people.

Eight Red Cross shelters, every hotel room and many private houses were full for more than a month with evacuees from the Mississippi and Louisiana coastlines.

The Natchez Convention Center played host to more than 11,000 people who came to receive Red Cross checks totaling more than $13 million.

Many of those checks were immediately cashed at local banks and spent at local shops, restaurants and grocery stores.

Combined with others in town that had access to their own funds, the economic impact was unlike anything Natchez had seen.

Sales tax revenues from October 2004 to October 2005 jumped 22.8 percent, from $364,729 to $447,891.

And the financial success lingered for a year. The city reported $555,736 in sales tax revenues in December 2006.

Many evacuees decided to move into rental properties or buy houses in the Miss-Lou, boosting the housing market and making it nearly impossible to rent an apartment or buy a house for months to come.

“We collected over the previous year approximately $729,000 that year (after Katrina),” City Clerk Donnie Holloway said. “And we wound up with a fund balance of over half a million dollars.”

Others brought to the area by Katrina stayed, opening businesses and creating jobs.

A few businesses and coastal transplants remain in town, but in the years since 2005, much of the financial impact of Katrina has faded.

Sales taxes have dropped — $401,294 in October — and the city budget has gone without the benefits of Katrina. The extra money from that time period is gone, Holloway said. And some businesses opened immediately after the storm have since closed.

But not all of Katrina’s impact faded with time, locals insist. The lessons learned and bonds formed will stay with the Miss-Lou forever.

“We served during Katrina,” Supervisor Darryl Grennell said. “During Katrina, this community did a tremendous job providing shelter and support.”

When homeless evacuees by the hundreds came to town it seemed as though everyone in the area wanted to do something.

Residents began visiting shelters to pick up laundry, which they did at their own homes. Volunteers spent countless hours sleeping on cots or sometimes not sleeping at all at area shelters. Families volunteered to keep horses, cats and dogs that weren’t allowed at the shelters.

And still more Miss-Lou residents simply opened up their own homes to strangers.

“It was a beautiful sight. It touched my heart,” said Angie Brown, who was a Red Cross volunteer at the time. “I’ve always known that this community was a loving and giving community, but to open their arms wide like they did during Katrina was just a blessing.”

Brown still talks to some of the evacuees and volunteers she met during the month after Katrina, and she’s certain that experience gained by local agencies during that time will help protect Adams County in the case of a future emergency.

“Some of the lessons that we learned during Katrina we put into effect during Gustav and it ran a lot better,” she said.