Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast throughout the last week of August, 2005—destroying buildings, flooding cities, and leaving millions of people homeless. However, the storm's most destructive consequence may have been the unleashing of human nature.
While New Orleans law officials and National Guardsmen concentrated on rescuing survivors, hundreds of looters took to the streets in the days following Katrina's wrath. Initially the looters targeted supermarkets and drug stores, focusing on food, medicine, and diapers. However, these seemingly innocent motives soon turned to greed.
On historic Canal Street, dozens of looters ripped open the steel gates protecting clothing and jewelry stores. Many waded through the flooded streets with industrial-sized trashcans full of merchandise, which they floated on makeshift rafts. In Biloxi, Mississippi, people picked through casino slot machines for coins and ransacked other businesses.
Frighteningly, many of the looters made off with weapons. New Orleans' homeland security chief, Terry Ebbert, said looters broke into stores all over town to steal guns, and the Times-Picayune newspaper reported that the gun section at a new Wal-Mart in the Lower Garden District was quickly cleaned out.
"The looting is out of control," said French Quarter Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson. "We're using exhausted, scarce police to control looting, when they should be used for search and rescue while we still have people on rooftops."