Support for NPR and the following message come from the Walton Family Foundation, working to create

access to opportunity for people and communities by tackling tough social and environmental

problems. More information is at waltonfamilyfoundation.org. 2005 was one of the busiest hurricane seasons ever recorded.

In late August that year, Hurricane Katrina grew in intensity in the Gulf of Mexico,

quickly reaching Category 5 status with 175 mile-per-hour wind and pushing a massive storm surge.

Hurricane Katrina is now a Category 5 hurricane. Category 5, which are the strongest hurricanes we

know of, only three times before in U.S. history have Category 5 storms hit the U.S. mainland.

This thing is a very strong Category 5, 170-mile-an-hour

wind. Two days before the storm hit on August 26th, then New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin declared

a state of emergency and called for a voluntary evacuation. Roughly 20% of the local population stayed behind,

most of them poor and elderly.

The mayor's order was followed by a mandatory evacuation order

less than 24 hours before the storm's landfall,

a decision some called too late and ineffective.

Katrina made landfall in New Orleans is a category three storm.

The massive storm surge broke through levees and flood walls, leaving entire neighborhoods completely wiped out and underwater.

80% of the city, a disaster. People were stranded for days, many of the city's most vulnerable residents.

The official death toll nearly 1,400 people, and New Orleans changed forever.

This is unreal. I mean, usually a lot of things don't amaze me. It takes a whole lot to amaze me or to really, really make me grief over.

But this is really dead. There are no words. This is unbelievable. I mean, how is this property in a move? I ain't

never seen a house move from its foundation. The federal emergency response to the storm also forced

difficult discussions about race and the government's responsibility to all its citizens in the

...