When I was growing up in New Orleans, I used to hear it called the \"City that Care Forgot\" all the time. I never quite knew what that meant, but in the last few days, I\'ve felt that not enough was known about my home town.\r\n\r\nSeven of my brothers and sisters and all but two of my dozen aunts and uncles lived in the New Orleans area. I say that in past tense because as I watch the unfolding horror I realize that the New Orleans I knew is gone forever. They may be able to rebuild, but so many hundreds of thousands are now homeless and jobless.\r\n\r\nOne of my aunts, an 80 year old single woman, was trapped in her niece\'s home when the waters rose. I still haven\'t heard whether or not the Red Cross was able to rescue her. As of Monday she had no drinking water and scarce little food.\r\n\r\nOne of my younger brothers has been out of touch since Monday. We think his cell phone battery is probably drained and there is no power in the area for him to recharge it. As of Friday, we still don\'t know where he is.\r\n\r\nTwo sisters and my baby brother, an adult with special needs, are coming to my home tonight. It won\'t be the kind of relaxing weekend my wife and I had planned. Instead, we will be sitting down to have serious discussions about how to retrieve belongings left behind, how to find services to help care for my brother, and how to house my now-homeless siblings.\r\n\r\nThis is a disaster of international proportions. Not since WWII have so many people been displaced by the wholesale destruction of a city. It will be years for native New Orleanians to recover what they\'ve lost. I hope that until then, it will not remain a city that care forgot.\r\n\r\n-- J. Flores\r\n\r\nOriginally collected by University of Texas, San Antonio\r\nhttp://www.utsa.edu/today/hurricane/ShareKatrinaStories.htm