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New Orleans: Then and now photos, 16 years after Katrina

Since Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the city’s flood walls have been rebuilt and strengthened

By
August 28, 2021 at 12:42 p.m. EDT
Marine engineer Jason Fernandes inspects a 250-ton barge in the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans on Oct. 1, 2005. Hurricane Katrina's floodwater pushed the barge through a breach in the Industrial Canal flood wall. (CHARLIE RIEDEL/AP)

Sixteen years ago, Hurricane Katrina reached its peak intensity in the Gulf of Mexico with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph. When the hurricane made landfall in southeast Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005, its intensity had diminished but was still a major Category 3 storm.

Katrina caused over 1,800 deaths and $100 billion in damage. New Orleans was particularly hit hard due to flooding. The hurricane’s 19-foot storm surge broke through the city’s flood walls and the levees.