Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, producing a storm surge that broke numerous levees in New Orleans, flooding 80% of the city, killing hundreds, and trapping thousands. Recovery has spanned twenty years and the city population has not fully returned. Many neighborhoods were rebuilt with elevated houses in preparation for future storms, while the hardest-hit areas, including the historically Black Lower 9th Ward, continue to struggle to regain residents and homes. A New Orleans native with extended family in the area returned to document the aftermath for National Geographic and repeatedly revisited to check on friends and family, capturing survivors whose lives remain marked by the storm and levee failure.
On Aug. 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States, one of the largest and most destructive storms in U.S. history. In New Orleans, the storm surge broke numerous levees flooding 80% of the city and killing hundreds and trapping thousands of people. Twenty years of recovery from "The Storm," as people call it, the population has not fully recovered. Large swaths of the city have been rebuilt with many houses elevated in preparation for the next hurricane.
However, the hardest hit parts, like the historically Black Lower 9th Ward still struggle to regain residents and homes. I am originally from New Orleans and most of my extended family still lives in the area. I traveled back to Louisiana to document the aftermath of Katrina for National Geographic Magazine, and have returned often to see how friends and family were doing.
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