September 24, 2005—Wranglers guide a herd of stranded cows to higher ground as flood waters rise due to a levy break in Chauvin, Louisiana.

The flooding was caused by Hurricane Rita, a fearsome monster of a storm as it plowed across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico last week. By the time Rita made landfall in southwestern Louisiana early Saturday, millions of Gulf Coast residents—including evacuees from Hurricane Katrina—had fled inland in anticipation of disaster.

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