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Flooding in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina caused arsenic levels to soar in New Orleans, according to a report due to be published in Environmental Research.

US authorities said high levels of arsenic found in floodwater sediment after the flooding was down to pre-existing contamination. But the new findings refute this claim.

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A federal judge says the agency showed 'gross negligence' in the years before Katrina. The ruling could leave the government open to billions in claims.

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Heather Hart graduated with a bachelor's degree in Spanish from the University of South Carolina. She said she was always interested in photography and opened her own business to take on freelance assignments and portrait photography. At the time, she also volunteered with a nonprofit known as Project Pet. In 2005, she went to the New Orleans area on a magazine photo assignment after Hurricane Katrina…

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Journal Photo by Lauren Carroll

Leigh Harris, at home in Rural Hall, talks about her life and how she has dealt with the shock of losing the New Orleans she once knew.

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Hurricane Katrina destroyed Tanya Jones family's home. She relocated to Dallas with no possessions except a few items of clothing.

Just four years later, the New Orleans native has risen through the ranks to become a principal again – in the Irving school district.

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At the Clinton Global Initiative meeting, Brad Pitt talked about his house-building project in New Orleans.

At the Fifth Annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting on Thursday in New York City, Brad Pitt gave an update on his organization that is currently building houses in hurricane-damaged New Orleans.

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Too few psychiatrists and mental health professionals and too little sustainable funding continue to present barriers to care for children four years after Hurricane Katrina washed over New Orleans, even as Louisiana health officials close down the city's only remaining public inpatient psychiatric hospital in a budget-cutting move.

Collectively, the events reflect the still-unsettled state of New Orleans' mental health services.

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The destruction of lush wetlands accelerated four years ago last month, when Hurricane Katrina struck. The third-deadliest storm in U.S. history claimed more than 1,800 lives, displaced 1 million residents and damaged more than half of New Orleans’ housing stock. Katrina also wiped out 80 square miles of marsh within hours, four times the amount lost by the entire state in a year.

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A state appeals court has overruled the New Orleans Police Department's decision to terminate an officer involved in a high-profile, videotaped altercation weeks after Hurricane Katrina in which he and another officer allegedly beat a 64-year-old retired teacher on Bourbon Street.

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