Photo : A handwritten message is scrawled on the roof of Hansberry Elementary School, where Hurricane Katrina victims wait to be evacuated by helicopter in the 7th Ward of New Orleans, LA.
The United States officially asked for emergency aid from the European Union and accepted assistance from the United Nations, as countries around the world pledged help for the hundreds of thousands left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.
While US President George W. Bush initially politely refused offers of aid, the White House reversed course as the magnitude of the destruction wreaked across an area of the US Gulf Coast the size of Great Britain became clear.
From London to Kuwait City to Manila, governments around the world pledged help in the form of money, food, emergency workers and oil supplies.
