--- title: Hurricane Katrina: 10 Essential Stories From Last 10 Years description: This weekend will mark 10 years since the storm made landfall in Louisiana canonical: https://time.com/3991634/hurricane-katrina-anniversary-new-orleans/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-27T09:00:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:12.186Z article:section: History og:title: Hurricane Katrina: 10 Essential Stories From Last 10 Years og:description: Looking back at 10 years of TIME coverage og:url: https://time.com/3991634/hurricane-katrina-anniversary-new-orleans/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0280321d25a20d0/69885e990a4a2267aa9c5889/1101050912_400.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 400 og:image:height: 225 og:image:alt: Sep. 12, 2005 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hurricane Katrina: 10 Essential Stories From Last 10 Years twitter:description: Looking back at 10 years of TIME coverage twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0280321d25a20d0/69885e990a4a2267aa9c5889/1101050912_400.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 10 Essential Stories About Hurricane Katrina > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: TIME Remembers: Hurricane Katrina [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Remembers: Hurricane Katrina](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Ja7xxn1L.m3u8) (2:35)  _Published 2015-08-24. Former TIME Reporter Brian Bennett and photographer Chris Usher look back on Hurricane Katrina and how it forever altered the landscape of New Orleans._ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Aug 27, 2015 9:00 AM UTC  The Sep. 12, 2005, cover of TIME The Sep. 12, 2005, cover of TIME Cover Credit: KATHLEEN FLYNN / ST. PETERSBURG TIMES / WPN by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Aug 27, 2015 9:00 AM UTC _It was Aug. 29, 2005, that Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana, leading to one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in U.S. history. On Thursday, President Obama will travel to New Orleans to_ [_mark_](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/08/19/fact-sheet-president-obama-commemorate-10th-anniversary-hurricane) _the decade that has passed since then._ _Ahead of that anniversary, take a look back through the lens of TIME:_ **An American Tragedy.** TIME’s now-editor Nancy Gibbs wrote this cover story the first week after the storm made landfall, as the devastation was still mounting. Though the flood waters had yet to ebb, it was already clear that the storm was a singular event whose echoes would be felt for years to come. --- > “” --- _Read the full story, free of charge:_[ The Aftermath (Sept. 12, 2005)](http://time.com/3210311/hurricane-katrina-the-aftermath/) **An accounting.** The questions continued to pile up the following week. How, they each asked in their own ways, had this happened? TIME identified four junctures where human failure had compounded the problem. From the mayor’s office to the federal government, there was plenty of blame to go around. --- > “” --- _Subscribers can read the full story in the TIME Vault:_[ 4 Places Where the System Broke Down (Sept. 19, 2005)](http://time.com/vault/issue/2005-09-19/page/40/) **Another place.** About a month after Katrina hit, Cathy Booth Thomas reminded readers that the destruction had not been limited to New Orleans proper. In one Louisiana parish, beginning the process of rebuilding seemed near impossible. --- > “” --- _Subscribers can read the full story in the TIME Vault:_ [Starting from Scratch (Oct. 17, 2005)](http://time.com/vault/issue/2005-10-17/page/59/) **A homecoming, or not.** About a week after evacuees began to return, Thomas reported that the situation in New Orleans was “worse than you think.” --- > “” --- _Subscribers can read the full story on TIME.com:_ [It’s Worse Than You Think (Nov. 28, 2005)](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1132832,00.html) **A lesson learned.** Mother Nature doesn’t care if you’re still recovering: another year means another hurricane season. On the eve of the 2006 hurricane season, New Orleanians reflected on the take-away from Katrina, and it wasn’t exactly a movie-of-the-week moral. --- > “” --- _Subscribers can read the full story in the TIME Vault:_ [You’re On Your Own (May 29, 2006)](http://time.com/vault/issue/2006-05-29/page/28/) **An opportunity.** Around the time of the hurricane’s two-year anniversary, Walter Isaacson found a bright spot left behind in Katrina’s wake: the many people working to improve education in New Orleans. --- > “” --- _Subscribers can read the full story on TIME.com:_ [The Greatest Education Lab (Sept. 17, 2007)](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1659767,00.html) **A near miss.** In the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav in 2008, Michael Grunwald examined whether the relatively limited impact of that storm was a result of better preparation—or just a lucky break. --- > “” --- _Subscribers can read the full story in the TIME Vault:_ [The Flood Next Time (Sept. 15, 2008)](http://time.com/vault/issue/2008-09-15/page/38/) **A retrospective.** As 2010 approached, Andy Serwer dubbed the aughts “the decade from hell.” The hurricane was no small part of what made the 2000s so terrible. --- > “” --- _Subscribers can read the full story in the TIME Vault:_ [The Decade From Hell (Dec. 7, 2009)](http://time.com/vault/issue/2009-12-07/page/34/) **A retelling.** Post-Katrina interest in New Orleans continued in 2010 with the premiere of the HBO show _Treme_. In his review, TV critic James Poniewozik examined how the hurricane had changed the way the city’s story was told. --- > “” --- _Subscribers can read the full story in the TIME Vault:_ [Song of Survival (Apr. 19, 2010)](http://time.com/vault/issue/2010-04-19/page/67/) **An anniversary.** For the [fifth anniversary](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2013848,00.html) of Katrina, TIME took a look at photos from before and after, how the clean-up had gone, maps of how the city of New Orleans had changed—and more. --- > “” --- _See the full package, free of charge:_ [New Orleans 2005–2010 (Sept. 6, 2010)](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2012217,00.html) _Read next:_ [_New Orleans, Here & Now_](http://time.com/new-orleans-here-and-now/?iid=time%5Freadnext) ## Transcript [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ SOUND ] It was very disturbing to me because I realized that no matter where you were walking, you were walking on top of people's lives. [ MUSIC ] The world didn't really know how bad it was for a couple of days really. When it came to the City of New Orleans, it wasn't the storm damage that was the problem, it was the flooding that came afterwards. That didn't really start happening until after the hurricane had moved through. The levies couldn't be repaired in time, and the city started to flood. Instead of streets, you saw canals. It made it really, really difficult to get assistance in those first few days. People were getting desperate. Everyone thought I was Red Cross, everyone. I was like, you haven't seen any emergency personnel yet? It's been 24 hours at this point. And they're like, oh, no, we see the helicopters fly over head, but there was a lot of confusion over who was in charge of the rescue operations [ MUSIC ] Where these people would go is they'd get picked up by helicopter. [ MUSIC ] It was really difficult to see these people's homes destroyed, emptied out by the tide, flood waters came in and swept out all their belongings. The wreckage was, everything that you can imagine, if you just take your city block and just chew it up. Two by fours, pictures, records. There was no sound. There were no birds or no bees. There was no bugs. There was no Anything, everything got gone. [ MUSIC ] You could just see that this storm was gonna change the life of this place for decades . >> Some of the neighborhoods in the city are just like they were, the garden district and the French Quarter. And some of the poor neighborhood like the lower [ UNKNOWN ] is never going to look the same. They're still vacant lots and places where the weeds come up over you heads. And you can just tell the sense of community that was there is lost. 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