Hurricane Katrina A Decade Later: Graphics Explain Devastation, Damage

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Category: World News

Published on Saturday, 29 August 2015 11:07

Written by Janet Walker

Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast states obliterating the landscape leaving in its wake unimaginable destruction and ruin, and then barreled across the mid-west and up the eastern seaboard, leaving a trail of death, damage and devastation.

Federal, State and local officials has maintained a vigil of preparedness, urging the inhabitants of New Orleans and surrounding areas, then mandating all to take the storm seriously, seek higher ground and expect the worst.

The force of water generated alone with Category Three conditions, high tides, and all other natural and man made variables created a catastrophe of epic and never before seen proportions paralyzing the people and rendering the government mute.

Ten years later heroic stories are still being told: The Cajun Navy, a group of locals who answered the call that went out on the radio and ferried the stranded to safety, has now become a documentary detailing more than simply the action but the American spirit, of helping one’s neighbor, of not turning away in the time of need. It is a hunting and uplifting documentary.

The Cajun Navy, an eight mile long flotilla of 300-400 local boaters, made the two hour journey from Lafayette New Orleans to the flood zones, no longer streets, neighborhoods and houses, only rooftops, now landing docks, were visible as the structures submerged beneath a unheard 14foot storm surge.

The Cajun Navy saved nearly 10,000 residents of New Orleans and their pets.

A unknown child, head in his hands, sits atop what was once a neighborhood now reduced to rubble by the force of Katrina. 

Images courtesy of Hurricane Katrina archives used with permission