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BEFORE: New Orleans on August 26, 2000. (NASA image by Jesse Allen using data provided by USGS Center for EROS and the Landsat Project Science Office at Goddard Space Flight Center.)

The Brief

80% of New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Photos and maps show the extent of the flooding, which reached 20 feet deep in some places.

It took 43 days to completely dry the city.

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Katrina swept through New Orleans 20 years ago, overpowering the city’s levees and seawalls in a matter of hours.

Thousands of people fled to higher ground or rooftops to escape the dangerous storm surge and, later, the sewage- and chemical-contaminated floodwaters.

Why you should care:

Ultimately, over 1,000 people died in Louisiana as a result of the s

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