Hurricane Katrina, the Lower Ninth Ward & New Orleans's Resilience

Hurricane Katrina (the Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that made landfall near Buras, Louisiana on August 29, 2005 — the most destructive and deadliest hurricane in US history, causing approximately $125 billion in property damage and killing approximately 1,836 people (the official death toll — actual deaths were likely higher), displacing approximately 400,000 New Orleans residents and reducing the city's population from approximately 485,000 before the storm to approximately 230,000 in the immediate aftermath): the catastrophic flooding of New Orleans (the storm surge that overtopped and breached the levee system protecting New Orleans — a city that sits predominantly below sea level (the average elevation of New Orleans is approximately 1.8 metres (6 feet) below sea level, the result of subsidence (the gradual sinking of the land due to compaction of the sediments and extraction of oil and groundwater) and the loss of the coastal wetlands that historically buffered the city from storm surge) — submerging approximately 80% of the city under water, with depths of up to 5 metres (15 feet) in the lowest-lying areas.