Katrina’s Anniversary: A Photographic Tribute To The Victims

Words can be powerless. They couldn’t describe the destruction, the mad power of the storm. Words were also barely adequate to portray the suffering, despair and misery imposed on the people of New-Orleans. Knowing that 1,600 people were killed during and in the aftermath of Katrina, and that 500,000 residents of the Crescent City were scattered all over the United States is one thing, but relating to it emotionally is another thing. Just like people, words can be cold like statistic. The fury of Katrina temporary lifted up the veil of hypocrisy concealing  the reality of a broken social system where inequality, based on class and race, still prevails. Katrina blew the lid to expose broken governance at all levels: local, state and federal. Katrina revealed the wide spread moral diseases of selfishness, lack of empathy and compassion. When you look at the photographs below, please have a thought for Katrina’s countless victims either alive or dead.

Editor’s Note: All photographs by Gilbert Mercier