Rising Up: Five Years Since Katrina

Rising Up: Five Years Since Katrina is ABC News and Facebook's special that looks at the areas affected by hurricane Katrina, five years after the storm. In August of 2005, hurricane Katrina headed towards the Gulf Coast, crossing Florida as a moderate category 1 hurricane. Katrina crossed into the Gulf of Mexico, where it quickly gained strength, landing as a category 3 storm in Louisiana. The storm surges that it caused brought severe destruction along the coast, especially in New Orleans, where the city's levee system failed catastrophically, letting in deadly flood waters. Katrina became one of the top five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States, with over 1,800 people losing their lives and $81 billion in property damage. The weeks of waiting for aid left people stranded without supplies or a helping hand, and lead to some people being outraged at the government for the lack of response, as well as the poorly built and maintained levees. Leaving a path of death and destruction, Katrina left many on the Gulf of Mexico homeless, and the events following the storm brought on many criticisms of the government response. Now ABC News heads back five years later to see what has changed and what progress has been made in restoring the lives and cities affected on Rising Up: Five Years Since Katrina. MORE