Katrina hits on a full moon right in the heart of New Orleans as a Cat. 5. Floods the majority of the city and destroys many of the cities buildings and historic cultural centers. Due to lack of effective evacuation and destruction of shelters nearly 70,000 people die. The storm stalls bringing even more destruction to the city. To make maters worse, it happens only a few months before the 2004 General Election.
By the end of the storm New Orleans is completely devastated, historic parts of the city are gone while most of it is now a part of Lake Pontchartrain.