Remembering Katrina, five years ago

Sunday, August 29, 2010 will mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall in Louisiana. Five years ago, Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, centered on New Orleans, as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h). More than fifty levees were breached by its storm surge, causing massive flooding. Over 1,800 Gulf Coast residents lost their lives then, and damages totaled more than $80 billion - the costliest hurricane in U.S. history. Many intangible things were damaged then as well, communities were erased as their neighborhoods washed away, much of historic New Orleans was badly damaged, and frustration and anger remain towards an inadequate immediate response by the U.S. government. Collected here are images from five years ago, as well as some from the past few weeks, in New Orleans and the surrounding area. (49 photos total)

In this Aug. 31, 2005 picture, Rhonda Braden walks through the destruction in her childhood neighborhood in Long Beach, Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)

Cars carrying residents leave downtown New Orleans ahead of Hurricane Katrina in this August 28, 2005 file photo. (REUTERS/Rick Wilking) #

This NOAA satellite image taken on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, at 2:02 p.m EDT, shows Hurricane Katrina, then a Category 2 storm, shortly after making landfall. (AP Photo/NOAA) #

Bay St. Louis Emergency Management Agency volunteer crews rescue members of the Taylor family from the roof of their SUV, which became trapped on Highway U.S. 90 due to flooding from Hurricane Katrina in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi on Monday, August 28, 2005. (AP Photo/Ben Sklar) #

Strong winds blow the roof off the Backyard Barbecue restaurant in Kenner, Louisiana, as Hurricane Katrina makes landfall on Monday morning, Aug. 29, 2005. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Irwin Thompson) #

Adeline Perkins carries dog Princess as Lynell Batiste carries Timmy and Kewanda Batiste and Ulysses Batiste swim through the flood waters from their Lacombe, Louisiana home on Monday Aug. 29, 2005. (AP Photo/Mari Darr~Welch) #

One of three dolphins evacuated from an ocean-front marine park plays in a hotel pool in Gulfport, Mississippi, after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast Monday, Aug. 29, 2005. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) #

A tattered American flag flies in front of the blown out Hyatt Hotel in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005. (AP Photo/Bill Haber) #

Floodwaters pour down the steps of an underground garage in New Orleans, Louisiana on Tuesday, August 30, 2005. (Marty Bahamonde/FEMA) #

Floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina pour through a levee along Inner Harbor Navigational Canal near downtown New Orleans on Aug. 30, 2005, a day after Katrina passed through the city. (AP Photo/Vincent Laforet) #

Smoke billows from a fire as another blaze (rear) rages in downtown New Orleans on September 2nd, 2005. Explosions rang out and fires blazed early Friday in southwestern New Orleans, as authorities battled to restore order after Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast. (DAVID J. PHILLIP/AFP/Getty Images) #

People are stranded on a roof due to floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina on August 30th, 2005 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (AFP/Getty Images) #

Cars lie piled up among other debris from Hurricane Katrina in Gulfport, Mississippi on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) #

A Coast Guard helicopter moves into position to rescue stranded victims of Hurricane Katrina from a rooftop on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005, in New Orleans, Louisiana. (AP Photo/Phil Coale) #

New Orleans Police and volunteers use boats to rescue residents from a flooded neighborhood on the east side of New Orleans on Aug. 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) #

The First Baptist Church still stands, but in ruins after it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in Gulfport, Mississippi, on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green) #

Prison inmates are held at the end of a sunken highway in New Orleans, Louisiana in this August 31, 2005 file photo. (REUTERS/Marc Serota/Files) #

Victims of Hurricane Katrina camp out on an Interstate 10 bridge as the floodwaters to the right show an oil contamination, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005, in New Orleans, Louisiana. (AP Photo/Phil Coale) #

Thousands of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina await buses to depart the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 2nd, 2005. (AFP/Getty Images) #

A fire burns in a New Orleans neighborhood that remains flooded as a result of Hurricane Katrina on September 2, 2005. (Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA) #

School buses sit swamped by the floodwaters following hurricane Katrina on September 4th, 2005 in New Orleans. (Liz Roll/FEMA) #

FEMA Urban Search and Rescue teams and local rescue crews conduct a search for residents impacted by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on September 2nd, 2005. (Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA) #

Water lines are visible on a car parked in a neighborhoods still flooded as a result of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on September 3rd, 2005. (Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA) #

An aerial view of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina the day after the hurricane hit New Orleans, Louisiana, August 30, 2005. (Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA) #

Evelyn Turner cries alongside the body of her common-law husband, Xavier Bowie, after he died in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Bowie and Turner had decided to ride out Hurricane Katrina when they could not find a way to leave the city. Bowie, who had lung cancer, died when he ran out of oxygen Tuesday afternoon. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) #

Blae Bryce, 40, of Memphis, Tennessee, prays the Lotus Sutra on an Interstate 10 overpass as floodwaters rise in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. (AP Photo/The Palm Beach Post, Gary Coronado) #

A dead body floats in the floodwaters as Hurricane Katrina victims use a boat to help ferry people near the Superdome in New Orleans on Friday, Sept. 2, 2005. (AP Photo/St. Petersburg Times, John Pendygraft) #

New Orleans residents are rescued by helicopter from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005 in New Orleans. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) #

Members of the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Missouri Task Force check houses impacted by Hurricane Katrina on August 31, 2005. The members were removing vents from roofs to search for people stuck in their attic. (Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA) #

Leonard Thomas, 23, cries after a SWAT police team burst into the flooded home where he and his family were living in New Orleans on Sept. 5, 2005. Neighbors had reported that the family was squatting in the house in the wake of Hurricane Katrina but the authorities left after the family proved they were the owners. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) #

Evacuees and hospital patients arrive at New Orleans airport where FEMA teams had set up operations on September 1, 2005. (Michael Rieger/FEMA) #

Containers sit among debris from Hurricane Katrina Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005, in Gulfport, Mississippi. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) #

Vice Adm. Thad Allen, left, lifts a downed power line during a tour of the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in downtown New Orleans with President Bush, center, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, second left, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, partially hidden, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, second from right, and Lt. Gen. Russ Honore, right on Monday Sept. 12, 2005. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) #

An improvised tomb concealing a body that had been lying on the sidewalk in New Orleans for days in the wake of Hurricane Katrina on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005. (AP Photo/Dave Martin) #

(1 of 2) Robert Fontaine walks past a burning house fire in the Seventh Ward September 6, 2005 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photos by Mario Tama/Getty Images) #

(2 of 2) Five years later, Robert Fontaine looks on at the scene where he fled a burning house fire in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, on August 23, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Fontaine said he stayed in the house to take care of dogs who were left behind. He was using candles due to a lack of electricity when one of the dogs knocked over a candle, causing the fire. Fontaine said, "My whole life, my whole world crashed. For everyone, not just for me." (Mario Tama/Getty Images) #

(1 of 2) Stranded victims of Hurricane Katrina rest inside the Superdome, which has become a makeshift shelter for hurricane victims, September 2, 2005 in New Orleans. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) #

(2 of 2) Five years later, the New Orleans Saints look on during a preseason game against the Houston Texans at the Superdome August 21, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) #

(1 of 2) A group of Amish student volunteers tour the devastated Ninth Ward on February 24, 2006 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) #

(2 of 2) Five years later, young residents play football near their home in a new development built by the Make it Right Foundation in the Lower Ninth Ward August 20, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Make it Right Foundation is constructing homes for families who lost theirs in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) #

Downtown New Orleans, as it appeared in an aerial view seen on August 24, 2010. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) #

Actress Shauna Rappold helps lead a jazz funeral to honor Katrina victims on August 25, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images) #

Sara Montag, a volunteer from the group lowernine.org, cuts a board for renovation work on a house that was badly damaged during Hurricane Katrina, in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans August 25, 2010. The group is renovating houses for residents to return to the neighborhood. (REUTERS/Lee Celano) #

Newly constructed homes by the Make it Right Foundation are seen in the Lower Ninth Ward August 24, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) #

Visitors tour the "Covering Katrina" exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, DC, August 26, 2010. On the fifth anniversary of the hurricane's landfall, the exhibit tells the story of the media's reporting of the storm and aftermath as water covered New Orleans and resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people in the region. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) #

An intersection vacant of houses near the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal, the site of levee breaches and flooding after Hurricane Katrina, in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans August 25, 2010. (REUTERS/Lee Celano) #

A building which housed the former Metropolitan Hospice is seen destroyed and abandoned five years after Hurricane Katrina, in the New Orleans East section of New Orleans, Sunday, Aug. 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) #

The Press Park housing projects, which were flooded during Hurricane Katrina, sit abandoned August 26, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) #

People walk along the 17th Street canal levee wall August 26, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) #

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