This photographic account of New Orleans before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina swept through is quite staggering and more informative than most of what has appeared in the mainstream media. It takes some time to get through the whole slideshow, which was put together by a Nicaraguan man living in New Orleans at the time of the hurricane, but it’s well worth it to get a sense of the devestation. Each picture is accompanied by the photographer’s description.

Update: The link has been returning an error intermittently for the past couple days because a lot of blogs and other sites have been linking to the same site, and it’s being bombarded by traffic. The photo essay is hugely popular for good reason, so if you get the “Album Not Found” error, try again in an hour or two.

Update 2:Well, the link that I was so eager to share appears to be dead. I’ve tried a few times this week to access the photo essay, but the Kodak Gallery keeps returning an error page. Sorry about that. For those of you who haven’t been completed saturated by Katrina news and images, this photo essay at csmonitor.com is quite good.