In the first few hours after Katrina hit, many people believed that New Orleans had dodged a bullet.

Watch it: To understand what went wrong in the government’s response to Katrina.

According to the New Orleans Data Center, racial disparities in income and employment are more pronounced in the city than they are nationally the poverty rate is 11 points higher than the national average and the incarceration rate is approximately three times the national average.Īs the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, explore three different FRONTLINE documentaries about the disaster, its lingering aftermath and the lessons learned. And New Orleans itself has worked to rebuild. Mayor Mitch Landrieu last week hailed New Orleans as “America’s comeback city,” citing efforts to reduce crime, decrease homelessness and improve educational outcomes for area students.īut problems persist. In the decade since Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - which came under harsh criticism for its response to the storm - says it has improved its preparedness for future natural disasters. In all, more than 1,500 died either during the storm or in the famously bungled aftermath - which saw local, state, and federal officials uncoordinated and overwhelmed. More than 1 million more in the Gulf region were displaced. What happened next was more than just a natural disaster - especially in New Orleans, where the failure of the city’s levees unleashed flooding that left roughly 80 percent of the city underwater. Ten years ago this Saturday, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast.

Hurricane katrina aftermath now