Ten years ago South Louisiana was hit with a one two punch of Hurricanes. I remember not sleeping much those weeks. I would go to work shoot and come home late if at all. I don't think I even had a chance to sit down and read what we where reporting everyday.
I was lucky living in Lafayette my home was never even without power. New Orleans was teetering on the edge of anarchy and parts of Calcasieu Parish were just gone.
A hole ripped in the roof of the Superdome lets in a shaft of light into the darkened building on the day after Katrina ravaged New Orleans.
Leeland Martin pulls his handicaped brother Milton Martin to the Superdome on a inflatable mattress on Tuesday afternoon.
Myrtis Clark uses a stop sign as a paddle as she tires to get across New Orleans to check on her mother. Her dogs are along with her in the boat.
David Castillo waits with hundreds of others as a mass exodus is underway. Thousands are leaving New Orleans by bus on September 3rd 2005. Castillo is waiting in a staging area at I-10 and Causeway Boulevard for his turn to get on a bus.
A sand bag is brought into place to be released by a helicopter at the levee break in New Orleans on Saturday morning 9/3/05.
Juanita Carew carries a small child through flood water on Canal Street Tuesday 8/30/05.
New Orleans Police Officer Clarence Taplin waits as police officers gather and make preparations to clear Canal Street of looters on Tuesday afternoon.
A looter holding a knife just had a bin full of looted sports jerseys pulled off of his shoulder and is now being ordered off of Canal Street by New Orleans Police.
Reese Pursell is prepared to defend his Canal Street business with a baseball bat if nessary as looting gangs roam the street on Tuesday afternoon.
A suspected looter is detained by New Orleans Police on Canal Street.
Looters carry bags of merchendise from the Foot Action store on Canal Street.
Looters scramble in the streets as people in cars try to navigate their way to higher ground and safety.
Police try to clear looters off of Canal Street.
Jewel France stands on Canal Street with items she got from the Walgreens behind her. Police allowed those who had food or first aid items to keep what they had taken from the stores along Canal.
Police use a canoe to carry supplies as they patrol streets.
New Orleans Police officers form a circle to say a prayer after they where able to clear looters off of Canal Street with out any injuries.
A military helicopter is loading medical evacuees from the staging area on I-10 and Causeway Boulevard in New Orleans on Saturday morning.
Andy Pitt (in the water) pulls this boat up Veterans Boulevard on Saturday afternoon 9/2/05.
Alvin Bresbon of the 9th ward rests on a cot amid the garbage on I-10 at the bus staging area on Saturday 9/3/05.
Mary Hatcher rests on a cot in the Superdome the day after Katrina hit the city. Hatcher is in an area for medical observation she is diabetic and lost her medicine in the flood waters.
Prigette Martin hugs her mother Sharon Jones after making a successful cell phone call to relatives in Houma who will now be coming to New Iberia to pick them up at the Cyr-Gates Community Center. Communication by phone has been increadably rare as so much inftrastructure has been destroyed.
Evacuees fill the Cajundome floor and its hallways as Hurricane Rita has increased the overall number of evacuees across the state.
Nichole Flippen has a lot on her mind as she sits outside a New Iberia shelter on Thursday 9/1/05 she is leaving for Chicago this evening night but needs to get to Baton Rouge before then to pick up her one year old son from relatives there. People from New Orleans are being scattered across the country as their lives in New Orleans are no longer possible.
Joycelyn Johnson holds her son Michael while her other son Tyerese stands by her outside of the New Iberia shelter in the Cyr-Gates Community Center on Thursday. Johnson has not been able to contract her relatives since the hurricane and has no idea where they are.
Hurricane Rita
Meteorologist in Charge at the National Weather Service in Lake Charles, Stephen Rinard watches a computer monitor as Hurricane Rita begins to come ashore.
A man holds his shoes as he makes is way up the North end of Ryan street in Lake Charles Saturday morning 9/24/05
Waves roll through a lake shore park as the Hurricane Rita begins to hit the Lake Charles area. The Calcasieu River Bridge in the background remains open as the storm begins.
The small coastal town of Cameron Louisiana is completely destroyed by the storm surge of Hurricane Rita.
National Guardsmen search a coastal cemetary for missing bodies that where displaced by the storm surge of Hurricane Rita.
United States Senator Mary Landrieu listens as Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen speaks during a press conference.
In some locations homes where moved a few feet.
Some homes are left with only a bit of debris and a foundation to mark where it once stood.
Janice Johnson walks down Marshall Street in Cameron or what is left of it. (panorama composite photo)
Mark Politz the building manager of the Hibernia Bank building in Lake Charles tries to talk on a phone as he begins the task of cleaning up on Sunday 9/24/05.
Tin siding hangs from the powerlines as Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen enters the Calcasieu Parish office of emergency management on Monday 9/26/05.
T-Mae Booth watches as relatives look through the rubble that once was her store on Highway 82 in Grand Cheniere Louisiana . The store was washed away by tidal surge.
Michelle Booth talks with her son through what used to be second floor windows. Their house collapsed and was push back about 15 feet.
Some fishing boats if you can find them at all can be found hundreds of yards from where they were docked.
Cameron Louisiana is nothing more than a pile of rubble.
Louisiana National Guard Cadet John Newman walks down a street in Cameron Louisiana after Hurricane Rita.
Someone has propped up an American Flag on a pile of debris in Cameron.
