Commemorations have taken place in the US city of New Orleans to mark the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
At a memorial service, Mayor Mitch Landrieu recalled how residents had turned to each other for support.
Former President Bill Clinton later spoke at a concert in the city.
Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 2,000 people and displaced one million. It was the most expensive natural disaster in US history and caused destruction along the Gulf coast.
In New Orleans, the failure of the levee system left about 80% of the city under water.
Mayor Landrieu led a sombre tribute to the 83 unidentified victims whose bodies lie in mausoleums at the city’s Hurricane Katrina Memorial, reports the BBC.
“Though they are unnamed, they are not unclaimed because we claim them,” he said.
“We saved each other,” the mayor added. “New Orleans will be unbowed and unbroken.”
Residents and community activists also gathered at the levee in the Lower Ninth Ward, where storm waters broke through and flooded the district.
Today the sun shone brightly in New Orleans. A decade ago Hurricane Katrina brought havoc to these same skies.
The city’s Lower Ninth Ward was hit the hardest – at a wreath laying ceremony for victims there, some found the memories too hard to bear. As a solitary trumpet played in honour of the dead, one woman wailed uncontrollably. Everyone felt her pain.
But New Orleans is famous for its party spirit – and the day was also about moving forward. Large parts of the city have been rebuilt. But as marching bands paraded past abandoned homes untouched since the storm sucked the humanity from them, many told me much more needs to be done.
Katrina stole lives and homes, but not the city’s heartbeat. As the world looks on a decade later, people in New Orleans, and across the country’s Gulf Coast, want to ensure they’re never forgotten.
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