Struggle and Relief

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin talks with reporters outside his makeshift office on the fourth floor of the Hyatt Hotel hours after meeting with President George Bush who toured the hurricane ravaged city.  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Four days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, hundreds of families travel to the Louisiana Superdome to be evacuated from the city.  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Eric Riley, 9, and his siblings Herbert Riley,5, and Aaliyah Riley,3, wait along with the 6,000-plus evacuees from New Orleans and other locations in Louisiana at the door of the Cajundome in Lafayette  (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)

Luanda Owens from Slidell, LA is one of the 6,000 evacuees from New Orleans and other locations in Louisiana who are are being housed in the Cajundome in Lafayette on the campus of the University of Southwest Louisiana.  (Mark Boster / LAT)

A stray Shih Tzu dog paddles across a downtown New Orleans street. Many dogs were left tethered or to wander in the area of the Louisiana Superdome by evacuees.

Editor’s note: Times photographer Robert Gauthier led the dog to safety.


  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Members of the National Guard wait to be transported from the Superdome to the Convention Center, the new area of concentration in the relief effort.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

Tim King steps through sludge inside his home in New Orleans’ 9th Ward, where water reached the ceiling. He came by boat to get a few of his things and see the condition of his home.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

A truckload of evacuees passes as National Guardsmen prepare to move to the New Orleans convention center, where thousands more still wait for help.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

A member of the National Guard stands guard outside the New Orleans convention center where help for the thousands of stranded people finally arrived on Friday.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

A woman frantically looks for help after an elderly woman fell to the tarmac after being evacuated to New Orleans International Airport.  (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)

Florida National Guard crew hoist 5-month-old Henery Johnson to safety off an apartment rooftop in New Orleans. Nine other family members were rescued off the rooftop of the apartment building.  (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)

Ceasar Martin, age 20, lies on the floor of the helicopter as other evacuees prepare for takeoff leaving the New Orleans Convention Center. The sick and elderly along with their families were evacuated first. Ceasar is a diabetic and was suffering from dehydration and lack of food.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

The last of the Hurricane Katrina survivors who used the Superdome in New Orleans as shelter wait to be evacuated. The sports arena that housed hurricane refugees for five days in lawless squalor was expected to be emptied Friday.  (James Nielsen AFP/Getty Images)

A New Orleans resident holding her baby pleads with police officers for information outside the city’s convention center where thousands have waited for several days for evacuation without food, water or sanitary facilities.  (Matthew Cavanaugh / EPA)

Hurricane Katrina survivors wait outside the Superdome and Convetion Center in New Orleans.  (James Nielsen AFP/Getty Images)

Soldiers on their way to the Stennis Space Center survey the damage over Mississippi.  (U.S. Navy / AP)

This picture shows the extent of flooding in New Orleans on Wednesday. Military helicopters dropped sandbags Thursday as engineers tried to plug the breaks in the levee.  (NOAA / AP)

A woman carries a child to a shelter in Houston.  (Ben DeSoto / AP)

A woman carries food and water that was being handed out at the Superdome in New Orleans. A military convoy of amphibious vehicles arrived in the city Friday, bringing urgently needed relief supplies.  (James Nielsen AFP/Getty Images)

Thomas Harrington, left, Ricky Goms, center, and Edward Route sit aboard a Chinook helicopter after they were rescued in New Orleans.  (Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP)

A building on the east side of New Orleans caught fire Friday. Firefighters said they would let the fire burn itself out.  (Eric Gay / AP)

Smoke billows from a fire in downtown New Orleans.  (David J. Phillip AFP/Getty Images)

A body floats outside the Superdome in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  (James Nielsen AFP/Getty Images)