Hurricane Katrina Pictures: Then & Now, Ruin & Rebirth

Hurricane Katrina Waiting Game
Photographs by Mario Tama, Getty Images
The New Orleans Saints play a preseason game Saturday against the Houston Texans in the Louisiana Superdome (top)—a whole different ball game from five years ago, when the stadium was a makeshift shelter for victims of Hurricane Katrina. (See a picture of the torn-apart Superdome roof right after the storm.)
As the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's Gulf Coast landfall approaches, many hurricane survivors are still homeless, according to a new report by the homeless-advocacy group Unity of Greater New Orleans, local TV station WWLV.com reported.
Hundreds of Katrina victims are living in the more than 55,000 ramshackle buildings that were abandoned after the hurricane destroyed much of the city, according to the report.
(Related video: "Five Years After Katrina, Ruins—And a Natural Wonder—Remain.")
Katrina, the most destructive and costliest natural disaster yet to occur in the United States, killed more than 1,800 people. In total, five million people were affected by the storm and its aftermath, according to Harvard University's Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group.
Published August 26, 2010
Come Hell or High Water
Photographs by Mario Tama, Getty Images
A Virgin Mary statue tops a crypt in an above-ground cemetery in Buras, Louisiana, on August 19 (top). The same scene in February 2006 shows the jumble of debris created when Hurricane Katrina floodwaters swept through the cemetery.
The deluge opened several crypts and caused some coffins to float away, according to the Getty news service. (See pictures of people and pets fleeing Hurricane Katrina's floods.)
In some areas, storm surges nearly three stories high wreaked havoc on coastal and inland communities alike. (See pictures of past floods around the world.)
Published August 26, 2010
Hurricane Katrina's Line of Fire
Photographs by Mario Tama, Getty Images
On August 23 Robert Fontaine returned to the New Orleans street corner (top) where a house he'd been living in burned on September 6, 2005. Though others had evacuated the city, Fontaine stuck it out without electricity to take care of abandoned dogs, one of which knocked over a candle and caused the fire. (See pictures of animals rescued after Hurricane Katrina.)
"My whole life, my whole world crashed. For everyone, not just for me," Fontaine told Getty last week. (Read about more Hurricane Katrina victims' experiences after the storm.)
Five years later, with many of Katrina's scars still visible throughout New Orleans, the U.S. government announced it would contribute more than $26.8 million to Louisiana to help with rebuilding projects, CNN reported earlier this week.
(Also see "For Hurricane Katrina Victims, A Solar Restart.")
Published August 26, 2010
Wall Against Katrina's Water
Photographs by Mario Tama, Getty Images
A levee wall in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, seen at top on August 20, was reconstructed after Hurricane Katrina had breached the canal (bottom, the levee during repair on April 25, 2006).
A federally mandated, five-year effort to rebuild and fortify the New Orleans levees—now close to completion—will feature a 350-mile-long (560-kilometer-long) ring of linked levees, floodwalls, gates, and pumps, according to the New York Times.
(See "New Orleans' Rebuilt Levees 'Riddled With Flaws'" [2007].)
Published August 26, 2010
Gone With the Waves
Photographs courtesy USGS
A latticework of narrow beaches, sand flats, dunes, and marshes southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana's Chandeleur Islands (seen at top in July 2001) were largely submerged by Hurricane Katrina's powerful storm surge, pictured at bottom on August 31, 2005.
Within days the surge stripped sand from beaches and ate away large sections of marsh from the island chain (see map), leaving few recognizable landforms in its wake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. (See "Many Islands 'Gone,' Wetlands Gutted After Katrina, Experts Say.")
Today the Chandeleur Islands are in hot water again due to the Gulf of Mexico's Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which coated many of the area's shorebirds with oil. (See aerial pictures of oil around the Chandeleur Islands on the NatGeo News Watch blog.)
Published August 26, 2010
Picking up Pieces, After Katrina
Photographs by Mario Tama, Getty Images
Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated his home in Pearlington, Mississippi, Willi Lee, 84, is still picking up the pieces. Above, Lee stands inside the house on May 25, 2006, (right) and on August 18, 2010.
Lee has received funds to restore his home, but he cannot find a trustworthy builder, he told Getty. (Read how Hurricane Katrina contaminated homes in poverty-stricken Mississippi.)
Hurricane Katrina's eye passed right over Pearlington—about halfway between New Orleans and Biloxi, Mississippi—lashing Mississippi's coast with 120-mile-an-hour (190-kilometer-an-hour) winds and storm surges as high as 28 feet (8.5 meters).
(Also see "Post-Katrina Green Homeowners Barred From Recycling Water.")
Published August 26, 2010
Up a Creek in Katrina's Wake
Photographs by Mario Tama, Getty Images
It's business as usual on a bridge over the Industrial Canal in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward on August 23 (top).
But five years ago Hurricane Katrina survivors were up a creek—luckily with makeshift paddles—after the storm had overwhelmed levees and inundated the area, seen on August 31, 2005. (Interactive: spawn your own hurricane.)
According to the New York Times, the pre-Katrina network of walls and levees in New Orleans was, in the words of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "a system in name only."
Published August 26, 2010
Katrina's Watery Graves
Photographs by Mario Tama, Getty Images
The cemetery outside Saint Patrick's Church in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish (pictured August 19) was home to watery graves after Hurricane Katrina floodwaters had moved in, as seen on September 11, 2005.
Five years after Katrina, New Orleans has made a major recovery. The city's gross domestic product is almost nine billion dollars higher today than it was in 2005, and public education has largely improved, the Huffington Post website reported.
But only one in three Hurricane Katrina survivors polled this year by the Kaiser Family Foundation said their lives had returned to normal since the hurricane, according to the news site.
Published August 26, 2010
Hurricane Katrina Hits Home
Photographs courtesy USGS
Now you see it, now you don't—beach homes in Biloxi, Mississippi—pictured in 1998 (top) and 2005—were wiped out after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.
Katrina's storm surge reached up to 12 miles (19 kilometers) inland in Mississippi. (See pictures of animals rescued from a hurricane-hit Mississippi aquarium.)
Published August 26, 2010
A New Hope
Photographs by Mario Tama, Getty Images
On August 20 children play in a new development in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward built by the Make it Right Foundation, which is constructing houses for families who lost their homes during Hurricane Katrina.
(Related blog post: "Five Years After Katrina, Green Homes in Low-Income Neighborhoods Just Starting to Sprout.")
The low-lying Lower Ninth Ward took the brunt of the storm's devastation five years ago but later attracted an army of volunteers eager to help rebuild (pictured, Amish student volunteers tour the area on February 25, 2006).
(Learn about organizations that have been lending a hand in New Orleans on National Geographic Traveler's Intelligent Travel blog.)
Published August 26, 2010