The Path to Destruction: Two Years After Katrina, Cleanup and Recovery Far From Complete

Today marks the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The storm made landfall south of New Orleans at 6:10 a.m. Aug. 29, 2005. The powerful hurricane ravaged the Gulf coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and left over 1,600 people dead. More than 300,000 homes were destroyed and over 770,000 people displaced. It was the most powerful and expensive natural disaster to hit the country and one of the deadliest hurricanes recorded in US history.

Eighty percent of New Orleans was submerged under water after the storm surge caused several breaches in the city"s levees. In the aftermath of the hurricane, the federal government was nowhere to be found. Images of New Orleans residents piling into the Superdome and convention center pleading for food, water and aid were broadcast around the world.

We go back now two years to remember some of Democracy Now!'s coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

• Excerpts of Democracy Now!'s coverage of Hurricane Katrina

To commemorate the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, protesters plan to march today from the Lower Ninth Ward to Congo Square to spread their message that after two years, the government has failed to help people return to their city.

The anniversary has attracted a slew of politicians to New Orleans - chief among them, President Bush who arrived in the city with Laura Bush Tuesday night. The president is scheduled to make a televised address there later today.

Meanwhile, an international people's tribunal has been convened in New Orleans to take testimony from victims of the disaster. The tribunal is being spearheaded by legal activists trying to build a case under international law accusing the US government of human rights abuses during and after Katrina.

• John McQuaid, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter. In 2002, he co-authored a series in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, where he'd worked for more than 20 years, that predicted the fate that would befall New Orleans three years later. He has just published a three part investigative series in Mother Jones magazine this week titled "Storm Warning." He is co-author of the book, "Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms."

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