Katrina............One year later

The Mississippi gulf coast was devastated and every thing for the first 3 or 4 blocks along the gulf was totaled. All of this area has for the most part been cleaned up and these people will rebuild.
Everyone thought that Camille in 1969 with its 200+ mph winds was the worse storm but I can tell you there are buildings that with stood Camille that are gone now.

New Orleans on the other hand is a different story. While many are rebuilding some of the harder hit areas will most likely never be the same and this is probably for the best.
(Remember these pictures were taken today one year after the storm)
Parts of the city are still abandoned because people have moved on and started a life elsewhere.
picture 1 Some houses still bear the dreaded X where the army came through checking for dead bodies.
picture 2 To get a idea of how deep the water was in this area here is a picture of a house with a refrigerator on its roof.
picture 3 And the closest boat dock from this shrimp boat is about 5 miles away.
picture 4 The city has set dead lines for removing the trash because some will never return and they need to get the streets cleared out.
picture 5 picture 6 Yes that house is in the middle of the road and you can see where it came from. About 750 ft in the distance.
picture 7 But others are rebuilding. Some are even taking the right approach and building the house above sea level even though the land is not.
picture 8

After driving around today it reminded me how a ghost town of the old west must have looked. Many business like Wal-Mart and Home Depot are still closed.

We all buy homeowners insurane, at least we should, to cover perils of nature. If some did not do so then they don't need to stand there waiting for a handout for their own stupidity. It is NOT the governments job to rebuild private homes. It is up to the citizens to take care of their own property

The government has already handed out BILLIONS of dollars for these people. If they don't appreciate the handouts they get there, then they are free to move somewhere else. I don't feel like working 60 hours per week so my taxes can go to pay for the terminally stupid members of our society..

It's all home to somebody, and family lives there, you build a life as best you can. Good luck to 'em all.

Everyone needs to live somewhere. When New Orleans was built it was above sea level. In fact the french quarter area is still above sea level and did not flood.
While expanding they moved out into the swamp and now you have the situation they are in.

This is the first time in my life span that the city has ever flooded from something like this.
In this same life span I seem to remember the Mississippi over flooding her banks and flooding places like St Louis. It will happen again so lets move everyone out of the river flood plain.

If you want to hear about the bad side of the story I will tell you.
A lot of these people have insurance but never got any payments.
Seems the goverment flood insurance does not want to pay because the flood was because of wind driven water. And the regular insurance says it was a regular flood.