It was one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, killing more than 1,800 people and causing at least $100 billion in damage. Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana on August 29, 2005, and devastated New Orleans when the city's levee system failed. An estimated 1.3 million people on the Gulf Coast lost their homes and livelihoods.
Ten Years Later: A Look Back At The Fury Of Hurricane Katrina
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite image shows Hurricane Katrina on the Louisiana coast shortly after making landfall on August 29, 2005.
Drivers and passengers wait outside their vehicles during a massive traffic jam as travelers try to leave downtown New Orleans on August 28. Authorities had ordered hundreds of thousands of residents to leave vulnerable areas before the hurricane hit. Many were unable to do so.
Cynthia Gonzales runs through the rain with a stray dog she rescued from a destroyed gas station in Gretna, Louisiana, as Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29.
Water spills over a levee along a canal just outside New Orleans on August 30, inundating parts of the city.
Residents trapped by floods sit on a rooftop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on August 30.
A helicopter crew helps a resident flee a flooded neighborhood on August 30.
A truck drives along a road left covered by sand in Gulf Shores, Alabama, on August 30.
A police car is submerged in New Orleans on August 31.
People displaced by the hurricane take shelter in the overcrowded Houston Astrodome on September 1.
A man clings to the top of a vehicle surrounded by flood water before being rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard in New Orleans.
The Metairie cemetery in New Orleans remains flooded a week after Hurricane Katrina struck the city.
A man walks through floodwater as a home burns during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on September 6.
A woman walks past a mountain of debris filling entire city blocks from destroyed homes in the Lakeview section of New Orleans.