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Five years ago this week the American city of New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina in what would become one of the worst natural disasters in US history.

1800 people died when the city's flood defences - or levees - collapsed and water cascaded though the streets and into houses.

One iconic New Orleans building found itself at the heart of the drama: the city's football stadium - the Superdome.

As the hurricane raged, it became home to around 20 000 people, but there were also reports of shootings, lootings, and rapes as they crammed into what became an insanitary area.

The General Manager of the Superdome, Doug Thornton, remembers the conditions in the stadium became truly dreadful, but says he was also determined to rebuild the Superdome and have it ready on time for the opening of the football season only one year later, in September 2006.

Astonishingly, he and his colleagues achieved their goal, and the Superdome became a potent symbol of the city's revival.

For a special edition of Outlook, Matthew Bannister visited New Orleans to hear the extraordinary story of the rebirth of the Superdome.