After more than 1,800 deaths, $108 billion in damages, and almost a decade of recovery efforts, Hurricane Katrina is now remembered as the single most devastating natural disaster in US history.

There were more than 50 failures in levees, leading to 80% of New Orleans being flooded. In particular, the construction of the lower ninth ward levee was called into question after a barge destroyed it, which directed the worst of the flood into the poorest areas.

Tens of thousands of people were trapped for days without food nor water and entire neighborhoods were submerged with sewage.

But instead of addressing the catastrophe like the humanitarian crisis it was, government officials treated New Orleans like a warzone. Thousands of police, national guard troops and active duty soldiers invaded the city to restore ‘law and order,’ and private mercenary firms like Blackwater were already on the streets before emergency aide could reach city residents.

Amidst the chaotic scramble by the federal government to deliver relief on the ground, defense contractors had turned large swaths of the city into an armed prison, meanwhile ordering civilians to turn in their firearms (including those legally registered). At the same time, bands of white militias patrolled the streets, using deadly force against African-Americans while police turned a blind eye.

Breaking the Set traveled to New Orleans to follow up on how the city is faring nine years after Katrina, and found miles of roadways in disrepair, tens of thousands of blighted homes and neighborhoods like the ninth ward looking like the storm just hit yesterday. According to 2010 census data, nearly a third of the population has left New Orleans, primarily in poorer communities.

The lessons of Katrina need to be heeded now, because it’s not a matter of if, but when the next Katrina hits. And the question remains: how will we respond if the government  treats its own people like refugees and goes to war with us again?

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Hurricane Katrina Unheard: Blackwater, White Militias and Community Empowerment

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Exclusive coverage from New Orleans includes interviews with Ward ‘Mack’ McClendon, founder of the Lower Ninth Ward Village community center about how he is revitalizing the community and two co-founders of Common Ground Collective, former Black Panther Malik Rahim and notable anarchist Scott Crow, about taking arms against the white militias that patrolled Algiers Point and killed at least eleven black people in the aftermath of the storm.

Photo & report by @AbbyMartin