Hurricane Katrina and Failed Levees Devastate Black New Orleans

Katrina's storm surge exposed Army Corps of Engineers levee failures. The Lower Ninth Ward — 98% Black, median household income ~$27,000 — flooded under 20 feet of water. Approximately 393,000 Black residents were displaced from the metro area; 100,000 had not returned five years later. The racial composition of the neighborhoods that flooded most severely reflected decades of discriminatory zoning placing Black communities in low-lying flood zones.