Where have you been for the past four months while many things have been discussed on the Katrina threads? For you just to pop up now, with your uncharitable comments, serves no purpose but to make you look like a fool.
Many people abhor the results of a failed welfare system. It has bred generations of ne'er do wells. To paint all the folks of New Orleans with that broad brush ... or even to say that everyone worthwhile already has a place to live ... just betrays your ignorance.
All of the rules have changed. All of the green spaces [parks] in New Orleans are being ripped up and utilities laid for trailer parks. No one, no one, ever thought to see this sort of thing occur. Is progress slow? Certainly it is; however, more and more people are going back to New Orleans ... to live in a few rooms of their damaged homes, to try to recover as quickly as possible. For others, there is no housing. They cannot return to jobs [if they exist] without a place to live. It is a vicious cycle ... no housing ... no job ... no housing ... no job ... New Orleans; South Louisiana; East Texas; and the Gulf Coasts of Mississippi and Alabama ... are a world forever altered by the catastrophic events of 2005. I have not seen it first hand but know many people who have.
I can tell you all, first hand, of the emotional turmoil and shattered lives I witnessed in dear friends who lost everything on the Gulf Coast and stayed with us for a while so that they could catch their breaths, regroup, and lay plans of action for starting over.
The magnitude of the destruction is unprecedented in our life time.
It is Christlike to extend mercy to the undeserving, if we are in the position of foregoing judgment-- and, God has not providentially limited us to the execution of judgment. "For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment" (James 2:13).
IMO, I think everyone worthwhile can manage on their own, as so many on this thread have done, without months and months of government handouts.
My Louisiana relatives -- good, hardworking people -- lived through this. My sis in law was working her butt off providing food, shelter, and clothes for others from NO who lost everything, when she had to evacuate LC.
Then, they went to their lake house in east Texas, and had to evacuate from there. Tornados, spurred by the hurricane which moved inland through the Sabine Pass, moved through east Texas.
They didn't have electrical power in east Texas, but after hearing firsthand reports of the aftermath hitting the place they fled to, wanted to go home to see if their home was still standing (they had to flee once again).
The authorities had Calcasieu Parish blocked, wouldn't let anybody come in, including the desperate homeowners who just wanted to go home and face their life's work and toil and sweat blown away by the forces of nature.
I didn't make it down to Cameron Parish, but saw the pictures. Nobody with half a heart could condemn the whole state for a few bad apples that get the press.
Once the rebuilding is done the naysayers will flock back to enjoy that american jewel, just as they always did. I hope all of New Orleaneans and the rest of the Gulf Coast residents find peace and fulfillment as they repair their tattered lives.