Monday, August 29, 2005 - 7:00am CDT
Katrina makes landfall along the Louisiana coast, as a category 4 hurricane with winds reaching speeds as high as 140 mph. It is possibly the strongest hurricane to reach the mainland of the United States of America in it's recorded history. Small towns along the Louisiana and Mississippi coast are annihilated. Within hours the New Orleans levee system is breached in multiple locations and 80% of the city is submerged under as much as 20-25 feet of water. Hundreds of thousands of residents flee the rising water. Tens of thousands are stranded on the remaining high ground, highway overpasses or the rooftop of their home. The rescue response is slow and disorganized. As of March 20, 2006 the death toll has reached 1599, while more than 1500 people remain unaccounted for. I traveled to New Orleans in the spring of 2006 and this is what I witnessed.
Photography by US photographer Feli di Giorgio.
