NEW ORLEANS — City and congressional leaders laid wreaths at a memorial holding the unclaimed and unidentified bodies from Hurricane Katrina, kicking off a day of events to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the storm hitting Louisiana and Mississippi.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu praised the city's progress and a group of musicians played a mournful funeral song as dignitaries slowly walked the flowers to the monuments holding dozens of bodies.
Katrina ultimately claimed more than 1,800 people and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage. Most of the deaths came in New Orleans and the surrounding area when levees protecting the city failed, leaving 80 percent of the city underwater.
The memorial was created with help from area funeral homes and the city's coroner to house the unclaimed and unidentified bodies.
Residents and community activists in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward gathered at the levee where, 10 years ago, Hurricane Katrina's storm waters broke through and submerged the neighborhood.
After several speeches, a parade snaked through the neighborhood while music played from boom boxes and people sold water from ice chests under the hot sun.
Wilmington Sims watched the parade from his front porch. He helped build the porch before Katrina, then had to re-do the work after flooding from the levee break damaged the first floor.
He says the outpouring of support was "uplifting" but many people still need help. Sims says the Lower 9th Ward, which sustained some of the worst flooding, still needs economic development.