Katrina: Long Road to Recovery

SI Staff | Aug 21, 2007

Katrina: Long Road to Recovery

Lynn Johnson/SI

SI photographer Lynn Johnson recently returned to New Orleans, two years after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Lower Ninth Ward. Much of the area still remains devastated, including this basketball court at Alfred Lawless High, the only school in the Lower Ninth. Johnson's photos show just how long the road to recovery is.

Lynn Johnson/SI

Cracked helmets still lie outside the boys' locker room at Lawless High, whose football players have scattered to other schools.

Lynn Johnson/SI

Ron Gearing (left) and Walter Tillman, standing here outside of Carver High, are both athletic directors in the New Orleans area. They're big propopents of rebuilding sports facilities because evidence shows that kids who participate in extracurricular activities graduate at a higher rate.

Lynn Johnson/SI

The gym floor at Lawless buckled during the flooding and remains covered in debris.

Lynn Johnson/SI

Lynn Johnson/SI

Lynn Johnson/SI

Lynn Johnson/SI

Lynn Johnson/SI

Lynn Johnson/SI

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Lynn Johnson/SI

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Lynn Johnson/SI

Lynn Johnson/SI

Lynn Johnson/SI