THE TENSION: Residents Return to New Orleans' Ninth Ward

A Mardi Gras mask caked in mud is seen in the heavily damaged Ninth ward, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, September 2005 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Much of the legendary jazz city on the US Gulf coast still lacks power and other basic services, few schools have reopened and the police headquarters is being run out of a hotel.(AFP/Getty Images/File/Mario Tama)

NEWSLINE
City officials have vowed to rebuild the ninth and bring its closely knit community back. But many residents, some of them viewing the wreckage for the first time, say they won't return.

NEWSBYTES
Residents Allowed to Return to Lower Ninth Ward in N.O.
(AP) NEW ORLEANS — A husband and wife who waited three months to see what Hurricane Katrina did to their neighborhood finally returned Thursday to find their blue, wood-frame house sitting in the front yard, three feet off its foundation.

New Orleans ward reopens, but will residents return?
NEW ORLEANS, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Marenthin Lagarde couldn't even find her home on Thursday when she returned to New Orleans' devastated lower ninth ward, as the city allowed local residents in for the first time to "look and leave."

Going Home Again, Months Later
(CBS) More than three months after Katrina, residents of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward were allowed in for the day to collect their belongings. Until now, people in one of the city's poorest areas had been able to view the destruction only on bus tours.

TENSION: No place to call home
GRAVITY: Below sea level

Tags: News, Gulf Coast, Hurricane, Wilma, tropical storm, photos, pictures, Katrina, politics, Louisiana, New Orleans, Mississippi

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