It's been a decade since Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, killing thousands and leaving countless more people homeless with nowhere to go.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Katrina, Tauranga band Kokomo have re-recorded their song ‘Home of the Blues' written in the aftermath of the hurricane striking land on August 29, 2005.

New Orleans, 10 years on from Hurricane Katrina which struck land on August 29, 2005. Photo: Jupiterimages

'It was very much taken straight from what we saw on television,” remembers frontman Derek Jacombs. 'Over four or five days no-one came to help New Orleans, a terrible thing happening in a country like America and how slow they were to respond.

'It was just heart-breaking, that there was no help, there were tens of thousands of people homeless, packed into the Superdome there, it was just heart breaking.

'We sat around watching with horror because New Orleans, being the birthplace for a lot of the music Kokomo plays, has a huge significance for the guys in the band.

Moved by what they saw the band wrote ‘Home of the Blues', their homage to the Big Easy and home to musicians like Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Dr John, James Booker, Dave Bartholomew.

'A few of us have been to New Orleans, I remember my first time there a few years back before Katrina hit, I loved every minute of it, the city blew me away with its music, culture and general way of life and the people.”

It's been played to audiences live a few times now, including at benefit concerts held following Katrina, while the song has also found its way onto a live album Kokomo released in 2006.

But with the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, it just made sense to record it properly.

These last couple of months have seen Kokomo working away on the song, recording it at Boatshed Studio in Whakamarama before handing it over to Tim Julian of Welcome Bay's The Colour Field Studios for mastering.

Derek says the band re-worked the song a bit which includes adding a special coda at the end – a New Orleans march to take it out and is also a reference to original version of ‘Home of the Blues'.

The original version also included a few more verses, but over time and plenty of gigs they were dropped along the way. Derek's not unhappy about the decision.

He's also pleased they do not show up on this new recording as they were more political, taking aim at how New Orleans was treated after being smacked around by Katrina, or lack thereof.

'Re-recording the song, I was very glad we dropped them along the way because they were very specific to feelings at that moment, and over the course of time, it didn't seem as important.

'The most important thing was what happened to the people of New Orleans and the city, not the politics. We're wanting to commemorate the situation and not re-hash the negatives.”

Since finishing the recording Kokomo has sent it off to radio stations in Louisiana and across North America, along with England too.

So far the response has been good and they've been contacted by a couple of American radio stations since.

'It still seems astonishing that it was 10 years ago, but we felt it was a good reason to do a studio recording of the song to commemorate Hurricane Katrina and the lives lost, and to let people know it hasn't been forgotten.”

For more information visit Kokomo's website at: visit: www.kokomo.co.nz

Watch the video clip to Kokomo's song ‘Home of the Blues' below:

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