Hurricane Katrina made landfall 20 years ago today, on August 29, 2005. In the days that followed, failures in the levee system caused catastrophic flooding across the New Orleans metro area. Two months after the storm, HNOC began partnering with local, state, and federal agencies to document the experiences of first responders working on the front lines. The interviews recorded for the Through Hell and High Water Oral History Project capture the disaster’s painful, chaotic, and murky aftermath—