I got an email from a friend who has done a lot of Hurricane Katrina relief work. Here are some extraordinary photos, taken by people on the ground. According to my friend, these pictures were made by a man in Magee, Mississippi, where the eye of the storm passed through. Magee is 150 miles North of Waveland, Mississippi, where the Hurricane made landfall:

The following picture was taken from the third- story balcony of Saint Stanislaus College, located next door to Our Lady of the Gulf Church in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, on the morning of August 29th, 2005. This is believed to be the initial tidal wave from Hurricane Katrina. The tidal wave was approximately 35 to 40 feet high. It slammed into the beach front communities of Bay Saint Louis and Waveland, Mississippi, and completely destroyed 99% of every structure along the beach for 9 miles.The destruction only started there. The flooding that continued inland destroyed the contents of all but 35 homes in these two communities of approximately 14,000 people:


Wow.

UPDATE: Jay Johnson advises that the photos above, while very striking, are NOT Katrina-related. They are in fact photos taken by storm chasers in 2002 and 2004 of extreme weather in Nebraska and Kansas. Sorry about that. Now, the last photo, which does appear to be some nasty tidal surge, nevertheless must be of doubtful provenance, given the innacuracy of the previous eight. If anyone know where it came from, or can confirm that it IS a Katrina-related image, please let us know in the comments.