Katrina Aftermath

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina breached New Orleans' levees at multiple points, leaving 80-percent of the city submerged, tens of thousands of victims clinging to rooftops, and hundreds of thousands scattered to shelters around the country. Katrina was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the U.S. At least 1,833 people died in the hurricane and subsequent floods. Katrina caused severe destruction along the Gulf coast from central Florida to Texas, much of it due to the storm surge. The most significant number of deaths occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana, which flooded as the levee system catastrophically failed.