Ric Francis Photography: Documentary photography in East Central Africa and Norway

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. 

  • A wide-angle photograph, taken from a high vantage point, shows a supermarket and other buildings on a flooded street.
  • A vehicle, in the foreground, sits in flooded waters with an Interstate 10 West sign in the background.
  • September, 24, 2005 - Jean Lafitte, Lousiana - A motorist examines rising floodwaters as he makes his way out of the area. This community is experiencing the effects of Hurricane Rita which followed Hurricane Katrina.
  • September 9, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana -  A dog whose owners had been rescued from a rooftop remains stranded.
  • September 18, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana - Ronald Small (and his wife Phyllis) returned to their damaged home three weeks after the levees broke. The combination of water and humidity caused the wood on his door to swell sealing it shut; after unlocking the door he was unable to open it.
  • September 18, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana - Phyllis Small, and her husband, returned to their damaged home three weeks after the levees broke.
  • September 14, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana -  Homes and vehicles were heavily damaged in this Ninth Ward neighborhood.
  • September 9, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana -  A decomposing body sits on a highway underpass.
  • September 11, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana -  Members of a San Diego firefighting unit search a home for survivors.
  • September 14, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana - A military truck moves along an abandoned street in the Ninth Ward.
  • September 15, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana - Heidi Tufto, a volunteer with the Louisiana Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals (LASPCA), breaks into a house to rescue a dog in the ninth ward.
  • September 20, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana -  Members of the FBI walk through the streets looking for people who have not evacuated; the {quote}knock knock{quote} device is used to break down doors.
  • September 10, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana - John Jones, of the New Orleans Harbor Police, cautiously approaches a dog stuck in mud in the Industrial Canal; he rescued the dog.
  • September 24, 2005 - Jean Lafitte, Louisiana - A stranded homeowner shouts to a passing military vehicle that he wants to be evacuated.
  • September 9, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana -  Receding floodwater leaves its mark on a house and automobile on Orleans Avenue.
  • September 15, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana - A flood line reveals how high the water rose in this lower ninth ward house.
  • September 22, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana -  The area near the breach in the Industrial Canal levee, in the Ninth Ward, fills with water from seepage (right) in the repaired levee.
  • September 26, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana - A pool of water is evidence of renewed flooding from a second breach in the Industrial Canal levee in the Lower Ninth Ward.
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