In August and September of 2005 an unprecedented degree of misery and disruption of life was visited upon the people of south Louisiana.

     Hurricane Katrina caused the flooding of New Orleans as the levees and seawalls failed in six places, allowing much of Lake Pontchartrain to pour into the city. It was the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

For Louisianians, the aftermath of the devastating hurricanes of 2005 was a time for prayer and a time for tears. Left: Women pray during services presided over by Archbishop Alfred Hughes in St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Baton Rouge. Right: Minister Clayton Johnson (left) and Lester Jackson (right) embrace Charleston Walker in Bossier City. Walker was overcome with emotion after hearing news that other members of his family were safe. Several dozen family members were rescued by helicopter following Hurricane Katrina and all ended up at the same shelter – Bossier City’s Hooter Park – without prior contact.

     Less than a month later, Hurricane Rita annihilated the southwest corner of the state, destroying homes and businesses, drowning cattle, and bringing extensive flooding to Louisiana’s coastal parishes.

     Statistics are useful in understanding the extent of the tragedies: For Rita, the storm surge reached 15 feet and more in some areas, power was out in 300,000 homes and businesses, and the sugarcane crop sustained $286 million in damage. For Katrina, some 900 died in the New Orleans area, 80 percent of the city was flooded, 25,000 people took shelter in the Superdome before the storm and were joined by 5,000 more afterward, 250,000 people haven’t returned to the city and a big percentage of those will never return.

     Another way of getting a feel for what happened is by the eyewitness accounts of those who were there during or immediately after the storm. For example:

     • State Rep. Don Cravins of Opelousas, a reserve police officer, describes a haunting sight he saw in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina:

     “The incident that captured my memory is the sight of people emerging from the floodwaters walking toward us carrying bodies with them in makeshift boats, carrying ailing loved ones…. The floodwater was full of oil and gas and bodies.”

     • Holly Broussard, a nurse at West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, describes what it was like when Hurricane Katrina’s winds started hitting the hospital: “The wind was bad. Glass was shattering in some rooms as we scrambled to move patients into the hallway, including those with oxygen tanks.”

     • Dr. Antoine Keller, a Lafayette cardiologist who flew to New Orleans on a helicopter to treat victims of Katrina, provides insight into the human suffering he encountered in the overcrowded, unairconditioned Superdome:

     “The illnesses we treated were people with dia-betes who hadn’t had their insulin in days, people with renal failure on hemodialysis who hadn’t been dialyzed in days, people suffering from heat stroke.”

     • Terrebonne Parish emergency director Michael Deroche describes the extreme flooding of his parish after Hurricane Rita:

     “Almost every levee in the parish was breached. We have seven, eight foot of water on all the low-lying roads of the parish.”

     The hurricanes are now a thing of the past, but the fallout continues and will go on for many years to come. It is clear that the fabric of life in south Louisiana has been altered for the long term by the terrible storms of 2005.

     – Trent Angers

While flooding from Hurricane Katrina caused the heaviest damage in New Orleans, it was Hurricane Rita’s strong winds and a 15-foot tidal surge that combined to wipe out homes, businesses and even entire communities in the southwest corner of Louisiana. Left: More than two weeks after the flooding of New Orleans, water still came to the roofs of houses in some neighborhoods. Right: There was a house here, but only the chimney and foundation remain after Hurricane Rita barreled though Cameron.

Hurricane Rita came ashore in the southwest corner of Louisiana in the early morning of Sept. 24, 2005, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to homes, businesses and agricultural properties. Left: In Vermilion Parish, cattle make their way down Hwy. 82 south of Forked Island. Right: In Iberia Parish, industrial facilities at the Port of Iberia are covered in floodwater. Below, left: In Cameron Parish, the community of Holly Beach stands in ruins as virtually every building in this coastal resort was leveled by the storm and its 15-foot surge. Below, right: Floodwaters surround damaged homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita in Cameron, in the southwest corner of Louisiana. Cameron and its neighboring communities, including Holly Beach and Grand Chenier, were mauled by the powerful hurricane, first by the 100-plus mph winds, then the 15-foot tidal surge.

The worst natural disaster in U.S. history, Hurricane Katrina tested the mettle and the nerves of firefighters, law-enforcement personnel and the medical community. Far left: Critically ill patients are evacuated from the Superdome in an Army truck as the vehicle moves through floodwater in downtown New Orleans. Left: Fireman Mike Seaman takes a break from battling a fire in the lower Garden District of New Orleans. Right: A soldier patrols the street next to a burning house in the Garden District. Far right: Floodwaters reached downtown New Orleans and the Louisiana Superdome after the levees broke as a result of Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge.