WAVELAND

85 mins.

The story of the town America lost in the storm.

In late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina was being described as 'The Storm of the Century' before it had even arrived. Satellite photos showed the gargantuan Category-5 hurricane covering the entire Gulf of Mexico as it barreled toward the American coastline.

In its last hours before making landfall, Katrina took an unexpected turn to the East, setting its sights on the small coastal town of Waveland, Mississippi. One survivor who witnessed the largest storm surge in Gulf Coast history coming ashore, described it as "a giant wave." The water reached a height of 28 feet. Within hours, Waveland had been wiped from the map. 95% of the town's structures were destroyed or damaged, and the lives of 45 residents had been lost.

In the following days, as the world's attention turned to the destruction caused by the failing levees in nearby New Orleans, the overlooked residents of Waveland emerged and returned to find their town no longer standing after receiving a direct hit from the devastating "eye wall" of the hurricane.

Waveland follows several residents in the aftermath of America's largest storm -- two sisters who have lost their brothers and parents; an extended family that is forced to camp in a Waffle House parking lot; and a mayor realizing his town is completely cut off from the rest of the world -- examining the effects on people when they have lost everything and asking the deeply human question: what makes a home?

Excerpt from Waveland: