The stunning picture shows the gigantic storm surge from Hurricane Katrina as it broke over a levee in eastern New Orleans. The anonymous photo was posted on the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation's website.

Don McClosky

This photo shows water racing over the levee near the St. Bernard Parish/New Orleans East area.

But mystery surrounded the photo for some time and it was hard to figure out where the picture came from and who shot it.

Don McClosky, the manager of Entergy's Michoud power plant next to the I-510 Bridge over the Intracoastal Canal, rode out Katrina at the plant, which is where he snapped the picture of the powerful storm surge.

"There were waves up on top of that, that were probably 15 to 18 foot on top of what you saw form the hurricane protection levee that was out there," he said.

In a home video made by a worker at the power plant, you can hear Katrina's winds screaming through the power plant. McClosky and his crew watched as the levee reached the limits of its protection and water began pouring in. Eventually Katrina dumped between five and eight feet of water inside the power plant.

Every vehicle parked nearby was flooded.

On the tape you can hear McClosky talk to his employees about moving higher as the water rose about a foot every ten minutes.

The hurricane protection levee and the floodwall on top of it were no match for Katrina's storm surge. During the peak of the storm, water was pushed up the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet and over the top of a concrete wall.

"As the water fell, it scoured out a deep trench on the back side of the levee," said McClosky.

As the water poured in, McClosky said he was thinking about people in eastern New Orleans and St. Bernard who didn't have the elevation or the protection he had at the Entergy station

"You can assume that if you have that water rising here at that rate, it's spreading out and there are a lot of folks having this same type of issue with the water."

Now those neighborhoods are in ruins. Barges are tossed over the canal levees and Don McClosky has the pictures that show how it all happened.