8 heartbreaking photos that go inside the homes that were wrecked by Hurricane Katrina

This week marks the 11th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the devastating storm that hit the Gulf Coast in the early morning of August 29, 2005 and would eventually kill 1,833 people in its wake.

Photographer Robert Polidori— who had lived in New Orleans in the 1960s — immediately understood the impact the Category 3 storm had on the city he had once called home. He arrived just two weeks later, ready to document as many flooded, abandoned homes as he could. While the city was mostly empty due to a complete evacuation called by then-governor Kathleen Blanco, Polidori dared to venture into the empty homes to document the remains. 

"These images are psychological portraits of the inhabitants," he told Business Insider. "People place on their walls and in their rooms items of personal value that projects who they are, or who they want to be."

Polidori shared eight photos from his book "After the Flood," which shows both the interiors and exteriors of hundreds of homes ruined by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

SEE ALSO: A photographer returned to New Orleans a decade after Hurricane Katrina to see what's changed

Up to 70% of New Orleans' housing units were damaged by the storm. Polidori was careful to document an assortment of homes.

Source: CNN

"I wanted to choose homes from a large variety of neighborhoods and socioeconomic status — and from those neighborhoods, I chose what I considered the most revealing subjects," he said.

While he didn't get to meet many of the home owners, he did gain an understanding of them through their belongings. "All interior walls reflect the Freudian superego of the inhabitants," he said.