"ALL SORROWS CAN BE BORNE IF WE PUT THEM IN A STORY OR TELL A STORY ABOUT THEM."--Isak Dinesan. This is a personal history, and recorded for history, of Hurricane Katrina which struck southeast Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama the morning of August 29, 2005. Katrina's wind damage was great but the destruction and death from the man-made broken levees were much worse. The power of Katrina was none ever seen before in Louisiana and it changed forever life as we knew it . The flooding in New Orleans that followed Katrina was caused by breaks in the floodwalls along the 17th Street Canal, the London Avenue Canal and the Industrial Canal. These floodwalls were the responsibility of the Orleans Parish Levee Board and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. One thousand eight hundred and 33(1,833) people lost their lives by drowning and thousands more clung to rooftops and crouched in attics in 100 degrees temperature for days waiting to be rescued. It was a human catastrophe unimaginable to the human heart. The flooding in Jefferson Parish (Metairie) was caused by a decision made by the Parish President to send the pumping station operators 75 miles away across Lake Pontchartrain. Thousands of people's homes flooded needlessly and millions of dollars of damage was done, damage that is to take years, if ever, to fix. The photos and narratives under the photos record my life and my family's lives following Hurricane Katrina. I plan to update this gallery for five years following landfall of Katrina. NOVEMBER 25, 2006 -- I have come to the harsh realization that it will take at least five years to bring the devastated parts of New Orleans (80 per cent of the City) to its feet. Many areas have not even been touched yet. There are houses still sitting as they were when the water receded and the infrastructure of streets, water, gas and telephone service have barely been addressed. This City and State need leadership very badly. I do not think any other American city would have been allowed to exist in this misery should this have happened elsewhere. Shame on our government. We give heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the hundreds of thousands of volunteers from all over the world who have come to our help. In our despair, we could not have survived without you. IF YOU CLICK ON THE SMALL IMAGE YOU WILL GET A FULL SCREEN IMAGE WITH A NARRATIVE UNDER THE TITLE. BE CERTAIN TO SCROLL DOWN AND READ THE STORIES. ALL PHOTOS ARE COPYRIGHTED AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM ME.