A city forever changed

BY MARTIN C. EVANS | Newsday Staff Correspondent

August 27, 2006

NEW ORLEANS - The most costly storm ever to hit the United States crushed homes a year ago, breeching levees, uprooting hundreds of thousands of evacuees and swallowing human victims in its surging floodwaters. The city of New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast lowlands are slowly regaining their balance, even as much of them remain in ruins.

"We've got people spread out over the country," said Mark Smith, a spokesman for the Louisiana governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

"There were 205,000 homes destroyed. There was 25 times as much debris as the World Trade Center. This is a process that is going to take a long, long time. This will take a decade."

In downtown New Orleans, hotels and restaurants that were closed for months after the Aug. 29 storm have begun to reopen.

But the city's population remains less than half of its pre-Katrina level, and piles of refuse, marooned boats, abandoned houses and wrecked stores continue to mark large parts of the city and the surrounding Louisiana parishes.

The federal government has earmarked $110.6 billion in relief, recovery and rebuilding assistance. The Army Corps of Engineers has repaired 220 miles of floodwalls and levees.

But federal and state officials have acknowledged that much of the earmarked money has yet to be spent, in part slowed by months-long reviews that require funding applications to win approval both locally and in Washington.

Over the next three days, Newsday will examine how the city, its residents and the federal government have changed one year after Katrina struck.