It is hard to know where to begin re:Katrina in my(our) lives...My husband and I are both from New Orleans and moved up North--New Hampshire--in our late twenties. However, we will always be New Orleanians--no matter where we are!\r\n\r\nWatching Katrina unfold on CNN was surreal. We both still have family in the NOLA areaand really couldn\'t grasp the images we were seeing on the screens. My brother and his family lived near the 17th street canal and lost everything ! Thankfully they were safe in Texas, but seeing that everything that they had worked so hard for erased--just gone tore me up. ALso, they have two small children and they had to try to grasp where are their toys, things, house, friends, school...ALso, the phone was tringing off the hook with friends calling one another to find out if everyine they loved made it out ok. Where is soand so? DO you know where xxxx\'s family stayed through the storm? Of course, no one\'s cell phones worked so that added to the increased anxiety of waiting and worrying.\r\nWHERE THE HELL WAS OUR GOVERNMENT THROUGHOUT THIS DISASTER??? The photos of people and animals on overpasses just rips your heart out. Even with one year\'s passing, the horror remains. Actually ever more anger at the last of progress made in building NOLA. If this were NYC or DC, would the pace of rebuilding be this slow? No way.\r\nOne -positive thing from this is that human kindness in quiet/gentle helping was evident. People who knew I was from NOLA called asking for addresses to send things, annonymous packages appeared on my porch for my brother\'s family. I still haven\'t been back although I want to go. I had been in NOLA in June 2005 for my 25th (Ben FranklinHS) reunion. What I (usedto) love about returning to the sleepy South from Yankee-land--is the thoughtful,friendly way everyone interacts with one another. The spirit of New Orleanians will overcome this mess, but it will take a long, long time. And certainy will be done on their own and not with any governmental help. Just by neighbor and friend helping one another.