History
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On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast, devastating many communities. In New Orleans, storm surge and failures in the levee system flooded more than 80 percent of the city and trapped thousands in chaotic conditions. Residents endured desperate circumstances in homes, hospitals, the Super Dome, and other makeshift shelters. Despite the efforts of first responders, medical personnel, volunteers, and the military, more than 1,100 people in New Orleans and nearby communities died. Most were identified and buried by loved ones in private ceremonies, but some victims from the New Orleans area remained unclaimed or unidentified. An unprecedented effort recovered and identified the dead, and Orleans Parish coroner Dr. Frank Minyard created the New Orleans Katrina Memorial Corporation to establish a final resting place for those victims. The site chosen was the historic Charity Hospital Cemetery, where a memorial designed to evoke the hurricane's shape and form a meditative labyrinth was dedicated on August 29, 2008, as a place of reflection, remembrance, and honor for the unidentified or unclaimed dead and for all who suffered or died in Hurricane Katrina.
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New Orleans, Louisiana · United States
