In 2005, Hurricane Katrina displaced hundreds of thousands of people in the costliest — and one of the deadliest — natural disasters ever to hit the United States. Of the one million homes that were destroyed, over 70 per cent belonged to the poor.

Two years later, some 86,000 displaced families are still living in temporary trailers and mobile homes; federal assistance money promised to homeowners has yet to be distributed. In New Orleans alone, over 77,000 houses have not yet been rebuilt. Houses, jobs, communities — all have been lost.

Photojournalist Brenda Ann Kenneally, originally on assignment for The New York Times Magazine, travels to Louisiana two years after the storm to document the difficult process of returning home. In personal accounts of families' struggles, Kenneally charts the emotional toll of so much loss, and shows what it takes to patch together a new life.