This month marks 17 years since Hurricane Katrina struck a blow to one of the blackest cities

in America.

Katrina, you don't have to go far to find scenes that look like they're right out of

a disaster movie.

This is just up of Canal Street.

Our Gulf Coast is getting hit and hit hard.

In the meantime, American will pray.

Pray for the health and safety of all our citizens.

Katrina may have moved on, but she's still causing trouble to hundreds of thousands of

people in New Orleans who are either homeless or without power tonight.

I remember those days like they were yesterday.

I was a young police reporter at the local newspaper, The Times Picket Union, when everything

just went black.

When the storm devoured the city.

Katrina lives on in our collective consciousness for the double standards and official ineptitude

exposed.

And it forever changed the face of New Orleans.

On August 29th, 2005, the storm made landfall in Louisiana.

Within 24 hours, fatal flaws in the design of New Orleans' levy system led to flooding

that submerged 80% of the city for weeks.

What followed is seared into America's memory.

The storm surge has been much bigger than anything ever before.

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