Looking Back On Hurricane Katrina 17 Years Later [VIDEO]

I'll never forget watching from home as New Orleans flooded following Hurricane Katrina.

Where were you when you saw footage from New Orleans as citizens raced for shelter or for a way out of the city?

I remember telling myself, 17 years ago, that what I was watching resembled footage from a 3rd World Country, sadly it was only two hours away.

As the levees broke, and as the pumping system failed the city, so many people left what they had behind and went for higher ground.

Too often we saw on national television that some never made it out of New Orleans and if they did, many had no idea where they were heading.

Sure, we can point the finger 17 years later, but the fact remains that 80% of a U.S. city was under water for days and no one had an answer on what to do.

There were times when local and state officials were nowhere to be found. One report 17 years ago had the mayor of New Orleans hiding in a hotel room above the city.

It is so hard to believe that it has been 17 years since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the gulf coast, but we have rebounded and we have learned so much from those devastating days.

When Katrina hit the gulf coast, social media was not around, thus much of the information we were getting came from LIVE television feeds.

I have often said that some of the best reporting/journalism came from the days following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

To see reporters BEG for help for a city that we all love was heartbreaking, yet their words went so far. What would it have looked like if social media was around 17 years ago?

Here are some photos that I came across as New Orleans flooded and these photos should remind us that it took a community (a nation) to build back.

Let's hope we never see this again.

Here's a look from the inside of the Superdome and from the inside of a nursing home where some never made it out.