At that point in 2006, hardly anything seemed worthy of celebrating. Except everyone wanted and needed the kind of emotional ...

1. Katrina makes landfall in Louisiana at 6:10 a.m., but the flooding of residential areas in greater New Orleans actually begins an hour and a half earlier. Between 4:30 and 5 a.m., levees ...

In this 1965 photograph, New Orleans-born photographer Del Hall captures the collective anticipation of the crowd as they await the arrival of Rex, King of Carnival, on Canal Street on Mardi Gras.

“New Orleans is a two-way embrace,” says Ben Jaffe, the director of historic French Quarter jazz-club institution Preservation Hall, when I ask him what it takes to endure here. “It comes ...