America suffers its most destructive natural disaster. Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 storm blows ashore in Southeast Louisiana, forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate. Katrina kills eighteen hundred people across the Gulf Coast, destroying or severely damaging homes from Alabama and Mississippi to New Orleans.  80% of the Big Easy is swamped when the city’s levees break after the storm strikes. Hundreds of thousands of residents and about a million others in surrounding areas are forced to flee. But Katrina’s howling winds also drive thousands to Superdome and to the New Orleans Convention Center for shelter, most of them, the poorest of the poor, unwilling or unable to heed the evacuation orders. Looting and violence later break out in the city where the initial sluggish response to Katrina only adds to the misery.

“We could go and help in tsunami, but we can’t help our own people, we’ve been sleeping in the streets for five days and nights.”

Government officials, federal state and local all face sharp criticism for their handling of the catastrophe, from President Bush and Federal Emergency Management Agency Chief Michael Brown to Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Despite some progress and rebuilding after Katrina, recovery for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast remains a long hard road, while debate over the disaster goes on. Today in History, August 29th. Ross Simpson, the Associated Press.