Residents of New Orleans have been joined by US President Barack Obama to mark five years since flood waters driven by Hurricane Katrina inundated the city.
Mr Obama has promised his administration would work on rebuilding New Orleans 'until the job is done,' five years after Hurricane Katrina inundated the famed jazz capital.
He said he was marking the occasion because 'I wanted to come here and tell the people of this city directly: my administration is going to stand with you and fight alongside you -until the job is done.'
The famous city, partially built below sea level and surrounded by levees, was plunged into chaos on 29 August 2005 when water driven by Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed its dikes.
Although 1.4m residents and visitors were ordered to evacuate as the monster storm approached, many could not or would not and were left stranded. More than 1,800 died.
Lashed by 230km/h winds and bloated by torrential rain, levees built to protect New Orleans burst, washing whole blocks of homes off their foundations.
Some residents died trapped in their lofts by rising waters that quickly reached the edge of the French Quarter.
Many survivors fled to the Superdome, the American Football stadium where 10,000 people displaced by the hurricane had already sought refuge, but it too became cut off by the water.
Rescue services were overrun as the disaster that reached deep into neighbouring Mississippi and Alabama unfolded, an entire region deprived of electricity, communications and drinking water.
