2006 Photo Contest, Spot News, 3rd prize
Photographer

Michael Appleton

New York Daily News

30 August, 2005

A national guardsman assists people evacuating from downtown New Orleans to the outskirts of the city.

Hurricane Katrina, the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, hit the US Gulf Coast on 29 August causing severe destruction across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Levees protecting New Orleans were breached, flooding 80 percent of the city. Rescue efforts were delayed and disorganized. One-fifth of the population remained trapped in the city without power. Some 25,000 people made their way to the city's Superdome, which with insufficient food and water and with no air-conditioning or working toilets became increasingly uninhabitable.

About the photographer

Michael Appleton

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