Two Years from Katrina by Barbora Kasparova

August 2005, almost 2000 dead, billions in damage, hurricane, news coverage, drama... More than two years afterwards, New Orleans does not make it to the national news any more. What's left of the "jazz Mecca" now, has the situation anyhow improved? What happened to the people? Almost half of the city residents who left after the catastrophe never came back. Despite the reconstruction efforts, there is still a lack of affordable housing, proper health care is not provided, and the crime rate in 2007 is almost ten times New York City's homicide rate over the same period. (http://www.realtruth.org/articles/070831-004-tyak.html). According to a recent government study, there are twice as many people mentally ill and suicide rate has grown dramatically. Despite all of these facts, some residents have not lost their hope and are gradually working in repairing their city, in fact, took the initiative into their own hands rather than relying on help from the government. Among many others, New Orleans enterpriser Pamela Pipes has put together a self-guided tour called: "Hurricane Katrina: Self-guided tour - witness devastation and progress and learn her lessons for all of us" to bring tourist into the city that was once a big tourist attraction. As Pamela stated for the Financial Times: "This is a citizen-led recovery "(http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=pipes+pamela&aje=true&id=070829000317&ct=0).

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20071119/ts_csm/aecomess;_ylt=Agt4fRMA1vQfNi4G1hfqGr134T0D

by Barbora Kasparova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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