Hurricane Katrina

Cousins marooned in devestated housing project in Biloxi. The storm surge left the buildings uninhabitable. 11 days after the storm, residents had nowhere to go and no way to get there.

A mud spattered flag still hangs from outside a church in Biloxi. At the height of the storm surge, it would have been submerged. 

The residents of this project in Biloxi have all been evicted after the hurricane. They say that the landlord is using the excuse of the storm to have all of the building condemned so he can resell to the casinos. They also say that the landlord arrainged for power and water NOT to be restored to the neighborhood. Two residents left with just a bag on their shoulders after I offered them a ride out of town in our car. They had no goal other then to leave Biloxi. I asked why others had stayed. "It's all they know. The projects is all they know."

Whats left of a supermarket in Biloxi. Right before the hurricane hit, when the poor realized that despite the rumours the civil defense was not going to come and bus them out, many people went to the stores bought loads of food. When the storm surge came, the food was drowned in their kitchens, and when the water receded the homes strained the refuse so that the floors and walls were covered in a thin black gruel of mud and rotting material.

blue tarp covers a distribution site for food and water in the street in front of a ruined church in Biloxi. The storm surge was 8-15 feet high in Biloxi, and almost every structure was flooded. The buildings that were not destroyed outright are most likely lost anyway, due to water damage and mold.

This woman survived being washed out of her third floor window and hanging onto a tree until the surge subsided.

In response to federal failure, civilian organizers, including Martin Luthor King II, left, have a tense discussion about how best to get relief supplies to the worst hit areas of Biloxi. 

The surge left gutted homes and streets choked with mud in Biloxi.

Biloxi.

Biloxi.

A volunteer paramedic from Maryland in a mobile command post in Jefferson Parrish.

Ruined streetlights and electric lines.

Picking up emergency supplies in Jefferson Parrish.

Sign taped to the wall of a fire station in Jefferson Parrish.

A Kansas National Guard soldier slings his rifle as he comes off a smoke break at a medical station at a Jefferson Parrish school. The soldiers are the only real authority in the city where martial law has been declared. These Kansas National Guard soldiers had just arrived home from a tour in Iraq before being sent into the disaster.

Waiting for medical treatment at an aid station. People who remained after the hurricane had no access to common medicines to treat illnesses such as diabetes.

Scene while driving in a military vehicle through Jefferson Parrish.

Utility workers from across the country arrive in Jefferson Parrish to begin the long job of restoring electricity and basic services. 

Doctor at his aid station, which he ran for 5 days in a school with no power or plumbing in Jefferson Parish.

The presidents helicopter flies high over a devastated Jefferon Parrish on it's way to New Orleans. 

An army chaplain reading from the Book of Job in a prayer service on the roof of an abandoned hospital with the darkened New Orleans skyline at sunset.