Aug. 30, 2005: floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina fill the streets near downtown New Orleans. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
In a catastrophic event that unfolded as America watched, the Gulf Coast was smashed by Hurricane Katrina 10 years ago on August 29, 2005. Mississippi Gulf communities like Waveland, Pass Christian and Biloxi were scoured from the map. Louisiana’s crown jewel, New Orleans, suffered mightily.
Beginning about August 23, the Category 3 storm built up a head before finally sweeping through Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast six days later. Its massive storm surge of pushed-up sea water disastrously entered the city of New Orleans. Critical levees broke (at least 50 of them) and canals spilled into neighborhoods, continuing to flood long after the actual hurricane had passed. Almost 300 people died in the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans East and nearby St. Bernard Parish alone. Overall, at least 1,800 people from the city and Gulf area lost their lives during the event.
A mandatory evacuation of New Orleans had been ordered, but many residents were trapped in their homes as the flooding rose too fast for them to escape.
Sept. 06, 2005 – In the Dahlman neighborhood of New Orleans, firefighter rescuers from West Metro Fire station of Golden, Colorado, search abandoned buildings. (Craig F. Walker/Denver Post)
In the photo above, Colorado rescuers assisted in searching flooded homes for survivors. John Saito used his ax to climb atop a home while conducting a primary search in the Dahlman neighborhood of New Orleans. At left is Steve Aseltine, also of West Metro Fire and at right is BM2 Michael Bull of the US Coast Guard, who was supplied security for the team. The members of the Colorado Urban Search and Rescue went to New Orleans to help evacuate residents in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Denver Post photographer Craig F. Walker was on scene.
Hurricane Katrina caused $108 billion in damages. It is thought 100,000 homes were lost.
The photos are amazing to look at 10 years later, as the massive scale of the disaster is displayed again.
Troops patrol downtown New Orleans on Sept. 7, 2005. Officials said they would begin to force people to evacuate their flooded homes. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Hundreds of citizens took refuge in New Orleans’ Superdome football stadium and awaited help. It seemed slow to arrive. Little drinking water was available to them and oppressive heat and humidity were constants. Families were helpless for days, trapped, as all surrounding streets and highways were flooded.
Displaced residents wait for assistance outside the Superdome in New Orleans, Sept. 2, 2005. (AP Photo/The Baltimore Sun, Karl Merton Ferron)
Federal and local government response was severely criticized in the aftermath of the disaster, the worst the U.S. had ever seen. But mobilized troops brought food, potable water and order to the streets of New Orleans. The city was by no means the only community victim of the storm. It was, and still is, simply the most iconic and photographed example of an American catastrophe.
