Lake Pontchartrain, immediately north of New Orleans, occupies the upper part of this astronaut photograph from April 29, 2008, with the winding course of the muddy Mississippi River snaking across the bottom of the view (flow is eastward, from left to right). The city of New Orleans is sandwiched between the lake and the river.
In this astronaut photograph from November 16, 2006, sunglint—light reflected directly back to the camera onboard the International Space Station (ISS) from a water surface—accentuates the wetland setting of New Orleans by highlighting the numerous lakes, ponds, and rivers (in various shades of silver-gray) surrounding the city.
A wall of water washed over the small riverside city of Gulfport, Illinois, when at least two levees on the flooded Mississippi River burst on June 18, 2008, reported CNN. Only treetops and a few roofs were visible above the surface of the blue-green water two days later on June 20, when the commercial satellite Ikonos captured this detailed photo-like image.