PUBLIC MARKS with tags katrina & reportage

In the five years since Hurricane Katrina (quickly followed by Hurricane Rita) ravaged the Gulf Coast, USA TODAY has written extensively about the rebuilding efforts there. In this project, we try to sum up where we stand, half a decade after the storms hit. Has life there changed forever? Are people coming back? Although this is neither the first — nor the last — look at the lasting effects on the Gulf Coast, we hope this multimedia project helps answer those and other questions.

Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Director Spike Lee was shocked not only by the scale of the disaster, but by the slow, inept and disorganized response of the emergency and recovery effort.