From Katrina's Misery, Superdome Rises Again

New Orleans' Superdome, home to some of Hurricane Katrina’s ugliest scenes, could also be the site of the city’s most glorious sports moment today, with the Saints hosting the Minnesota Vikings with a shot at the Super Bowl on the line. “It looked like Armageddon,” the stadium’s manager says of the days after the 2005 disaster, when some 30,000 sought refuge in the building, without plumbing or power amid sweltering temperatures.

The roof was ruined, as was much of the inside. Now, after a $200 million renovation and an incalculable fortune in will power, the Saints are ready to put the finishing touches on. “It’s hardened us a little bit,” quarterback Drew Brees tells the AP. “It’s given us an edge, but certainly in the end I think it’s made us tougher. It’s brought us together.”
(More Hurricane Katrina stories.)