Slideshow: Devastation in Pontchartrain

The Pontchartain Park community sustained some of the deepest flooding during the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe in 2005

Hurricane Katrina is considered the most destructive and costliest natural disaster in United States history.

Days after the storm, lifelong resident Hal Amos skimmed via motorboat through the murky water, in some places high as the rooftops, to capture these rare photos of his beloved community.

Not a single home in Pontchartrain Park was left undamaged by Katrina’s flooding.

As the fifth anniversary of Katrina approaches, homeowners in the historic African-American community are struggling to rebuild their houses and lives.

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, three‐quarters of Pontchartrain residents had lived there since at least 1989, with many of the homes passed on from parents to their adult children.

Pontchartrain Park was accessible only by boat immediately after Katrina, as the flooding surged to the rooftops.

Pontchartrain Park’s return rate has increased from about 33 percent to more than 50 percent since actor Wendell Pierce got involved in rebuilding efforts.

Immediately after Katrina’s wrath, the neighborhood experienced the city’s second lowest rate of return, second only to the Lower Ninth Ward.

Before the hurricane, Pontchartrain Park was a thriving district where more than 90 percent of its residents were homeowners.

Until Katrina’s flooding in 2005, the Pontchartrain Park community was known as a safe haven for working-class blacks.

Pontchartrain Park has yielded many prominent New Orleanians, including actor Wendell Pierce star of HBO’s The Wire and Treme; trumpeter Terence Blanchard; Marc Morial, a former mayor who now leads the National Urban League; and EPA chief Lisa Perez Jackson.

Floodwaters nearly reached the level of street signs in some parts of The Park.

Some parts of this neighborhood of 1,000 homes were slammed with more than 10 feet of floodwater.