Brenda Ann Kenneally

Finding the Way Home: Two Years After Katrina

October 4, 2007 - October 28, 2007

Photojournalist Brenda Ann Kenneally, originally on assignment for The New York Times Magazine, documents the seemingly endless struggles some families face as they set about Finding the Way Home: Two Years After Katrina.

By now, the initial images are familiar: rows of city blocks flooded past the horizon, crowds outside the Superdome begging for help, hundreds stranded on highways looking for somewhere to go.

Two years after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana on August 29, 2005, the story is no longer about leaving. It’s about coming home. For many, that process has not been easy. Tens of thousands of houses still remain empty, a majority of them belonging to the poor. In New Orleans alone, most of the 77,000 rental units have not been rebuilt.

As staggering as the numbers are, though, they cannot do justice to the emotional turmoil left in the hurricane’s wake. Just what does it take for a family to start over? How does one survive not only the loss of a house, but the very real economic hardships of paltry insurance payments and lack of jobs, housing, and so many basic needs.