These 17 Photos Of Harvey & Katrina Reveal Exactly How Destructive Hurricanes Can Be

It's been 12 years since one of the worst natural disaster in American history, Hurricane Katrina. First making landfall on Aug. 23, 2005, and slamming the city of New Orleans for the following eight days, Katrina was the deadliest storm seen in America in nearly 80 years. And now, as its grim anniversary rolls around, yet another catastrophic storm has spun out of the Gulf Coast to inundate a community with record-setting floods ― these photos of Hurricane Harvey and Katrina show both the differences and similarities between the two disasters.

Perhaps the unifying thread between the two are urban environments and infrastructure totally unable to contain the devastating levels of rainfall, the sea level rise, and the subsequent flooding. Harvey is expected to continue deluging the greater Houston area and southeastern Texas coast for days more, meaning it could be a while before the immediate threat is even resolved.

While Harvey has not been even remotely as deadly as Katrina so far ― though the flooding and recovery effort is not yet over, so the death toll will likely climb higher in the days and weeks to come ― the visible calamity of both storms is harrowing in the extreme. Here are some images that evoke both the similarities and differences between the two disastrous events.

1. Hurricane Harvey, 2017

2. Hurricane Katrina, 2005

3. Hurricane Harvey, 2017

4. Hurricane Katrina, 2005

5. Hurricane Harvey, 2017

6. Hurricane Katrina, 2005

7. Hurricane Harvey, 2017

8. Hurricane Katrina, 2005

9. Hurricane Harvey, 2017

10. Hurricane Katrina, 2005

11. Hurricane Harvey, 2017

12. Hurricane Katrina, 2005

13. Hurricane Harvey, 2017

14. Hurricane Katrina, 2005

15. Hurricane Harvey, 2017

16. Hurricane Katrina, 2017

17. Hurricane Harvey, 2017

Although Harvey has so far dumped a lot more sheer rainfall on the greater Houston area than Katrina did in New Orleans, the city's infrastructure has thus far kept the death toll far lower than what was seen in Katrina. Back in New Orleans in 2005, more than 1,200 people lost their lives to Katrina, while so far in Texas, 14 people have so far been confirmed dead.

That doesn't mean that the impact of Harvey is over, to be clear; to the contrary, given the visibly terrible state of conditions, it seems a virtual certainty that the situation will continue to worsen before it's all over. The time it'll take to recover and restore the communities affected, according to some experts, could be a matter of months or years. And while Texas is getting the worst of it by far, Louisiana is now preparing to face downpours from Harvey, too.