A construction worker (top) uses his laptop inside the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans in July 2006. At a time when local hospitals, schools, and government buildings remain in disrepair, critics see the Superdome's reconstruction as a frivolous expense.

Nearly a year earlier, stranded victims of Katrina—shown at bottom on September 2, 2005, four days after the hurricane hit—took refuge inside the covered stadium, which had been designated as an evacuation center. Nearly 20,000 evacuees, three of whom died in the stadium, took shelter in the Superdome, where many found unsanitary conditions and a lack of medical supplies or attention.

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