For Erika Olinger, the aftermath of Katrina is a story of a community rebuilt.

The business she owned, the Cole Pratt Gallery on Magazine Street, had catered largely to tourists with its showcase of Southern artists. But seven weeks after the storm, a New Orleanian friend said, “I’m going to buy a painting.”

“That just started off this wonderful trend of people buying locally,” she said. “I had three of the most phenomenal years. I think people who in the past would go shopping for things elsewhere decided it was time to put their money back into the community.”

Looking back over the past five years, Erika Olinger sees the “entrepreneurial spirit” around her. And that has brought back the city she loves. “It’s grungy, it’s gritty, it’s poetical, it’s musical.”

The Chance to Start Fresh

As Jude Olinger scrambled to maintain his business, he also managed to give an assist to Neel Sus, 33. A New Orleans resident since graduating from Tulane University in 1995, Sus worked as a technical manager with Coleman Research Corporation and later with Northrop Grumman.

Even before Katrina, Sus had an entrepreneurial itch. On weekends he worked freelance programming projects, starting an embryonic part-time business. In the year after Katrina hit, he finally took the leap and created Susco Solutions, which builds custom software, including mobile apps, for businesses.

Olinger needed custom software to automate a going project, and he recognized entrepreneurial potential in Sus. So instead of engaging Sus to do the work part-time, Olinger worked out a deal in May 2006 allowing Sus to spend all of his time on his business.

From there, Sus didn’t look back. His company has grown into mobility, providing iPhone app templates for corporations along with custom computer programming. Katrina was the turning point in his ability to build a business that will generate $600,000 to $700,000 revenue this year.

“Some of the people in my market left,” Sus said, and their departure created openings.

“How often could I do what I’m doing and it be part of the return of the city?” Sus asked. “In this economy, in some ways it’s kind of the equivalent of settling the Wild Wild West.”

A Springboard to Something Bigger

Just as the Wild West offered opportunities for those with perseverance and moxie, Katrina did the same for people like Skipper Bond.

Bond, 38, spent a few years in New York working for the global public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard until the September 11, 2001, terror attacks convinced him to return to the South. Once home, he started an event production and public relations company called Proscenia, which, as he put it, “made a lot of money and lost a lot of money.”

He started a second public relations firm. That firm, Bond Public Relations and Brand Strategy, was gaining momentum when Katrina wiped out his local clients. He got lucky: A national client with local ties, Southern Comfort, kept business alive.

He also got a call from a former boss who was working with Fluor Corp. The construction giant based in Dallas was installing temporary housing on the Gulf Coast. Fluor needed a local person to help with public relations.

Bond was on his way.

He was able to make his first hire, his sister. And as the city came back, Bond’s business grew as well. Today, it has eight employees and is nearing $1 million in annual revenue, Bond said. The company has handled such events as New Orleans' famed Jazz Fest.

“Katrina was definitely a springboard,” Bond said. “There was so much opportunity after for those of us that stuck around and endured. ”

Mission for the Future

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, Kevin Langley is not just a New Orleans resident and business owner. He’s a resilient entrepreneur, one who is as concerned about building his city as he is his business.

Langley doesn’t really see a city whose population has fallen, and he tries not to focus on the swaths of land where houses once stood. Instead, he points out a local economy that somehow survived the Great Recession better than most major cities. It’s a city where the levy system has been largely rebuilt and where its once-dysfunctional school system has been replaced by a network of charter schools closely watched as a model for other cities.

The recovery of Langley’s construction business, while hugely important, is only part of what he wants. His goal is for New Orleans to experience a full-fledged entrepreneurial renaissance. He’s taken on a role as mentor to entrepreneurs like Bond and Sus. Through the international Entrepreneur’s Organization, he helped develop a program for helping young entrepreneurs grow their businesses to $1 million revenue, which is the level at which an entrepreneur is eligible to join EO, which he helped launch in New Orleans right after the storm. The experience of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath helped him focus on what’s important about entrepreneurship—the courage to take risks to create something of lasting value, service to community, and to family.

“The reality is, it was the same struggle I had before. It just was much more dramatic, much more serious, much more purposeful after the storm,” Langley said. “So, for me, the storm was a dramatic event that allowed me to focus on what was most important. And doing the right things for the right reasons for the right purpose, that was Katrina.”

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Kent Bernhard Jr. is News Editor of Portfolio.com