WP, pg1: Life may never return to city haunted by Katrina

[DeepModem Mom]

Silence After the Storm
Life Has Yet to Return to Much of a City Haunted by Katrina
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 27, 2006; Page A01

NEW ORLEANS -- When it was fresh, the epic wreckage of Hurricane Katrina inspired rallying cries of "We will rebuild!" But a year after the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, vast stretches of this city and the Gulf Coast are still largely abandoned, and many here wonder whether the destruction may be more permanent than anyone could at first conceive.

Tallies of electric bills and school enrollment figures show that less than half of New Orleans's pre-storm population of 455,000 has returned. The population of adjacent St. Bernard Parish has shrunk from 65,000 to less than 20,000. In small towns along the Mississippi Coast from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi, fewer than 5 percent of destroyed homes are being rebuilt.

Exactly how long the damaged areas will take to recover -- if they recover -- has been a matter of intense speculation ever since the waters receded. But with each passing day, more of the displaced are buying houses or signing leases in faraway cities, and the weeds in the abandoned yards grow higher.

By one measure, this "ghost town" effect may be long-lasting. On one typical middle-class New Orleans street that was flooded, 10 of 15 families surveyed by The Washington Post said they have no plans to return this year, if ever. Only one family of the 15 has gone back so far....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/26/AR2006082600309.html

[msongs]

1. roll video, voice over: brought to you by the repub congress & GWB

the repubs control EVERYTHING so they are completely responsible.

Msongs
www.myspace.com/msongs