Joseph and Selina Gonzales, have been married for 70 years and live in Yscloskey, 30 miles from New Orleans. Joseph, who’s gone blind, plans to finish the 60-foot boat in his yard. Joseph’s boat is one of the only things that held up during Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall 10 years ago this week. Though the storm destroyed all the houses in the area, Joseph’s boat lost a mast and sails but remained anchored in the flooding. The couple hopes to get the boat into the water before next hurricane comes. “That you can’t count on,” Joseph says. “You don’t know what’s going to happen in life.”

Created by director Zack Godshall, “The Boatman” is part of a six-part series New Orleans, Here & Now from Time Inc. Studios and Rampante, premiering this week.

To see more from that series, visit here.

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Write to Julia Zorthian at julia.zorthian@time.com.