New Orleans marks Katrina with music, tributes

By Peter Henderson and Matt Daily

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – New Orleans residents marched
through their battered city on Tuesday, marking the anniversary
of Hurricane Katrina with tributes to rescue workers and the
dead and calls to bring home those still dispersed by the
storm.

President Bush arrived for a memorial service and said he
took “full responsibility” for the federal government’s slow
response to the nation’s most damaging natural disaster,
promising to do better next time.

“A year ago, I made a pledge that we will learn the lessons
of Katrina and that we will do what it takes to help you
recover,” he told residents.

“If there is another natural disaster, we’ll respond in
better fashion.”

The stark scenes of poverty and racial division exposed by
the disaster shook the U.S. image abroad and the Bush
administration came under fierce criticism for its sluggish
response. Many residents remain furious at the slow pace of
recovery and believe Bush has not made good on his pledge.

While tourist areas like the famous French Quarter have
come back to life, swathes of the city remain in ruins, and
federal grants to help people rebuild their homes are only now
being dispersed.

The birthplace of jazz has shrunk to about half its
pre-Katrina population of 450,000 and many expect it to stay
small as poorer, mostly black residents struggle to return.

“Since the storm there’s a sense of loss and loneliness,”
said Agnes Haynes, who survived days in the city’s convention
center before being evacuated.

“But some days, like today, it’s normal, normal, normal. It
looked like the city again. It looked like New Orleans again.”

Large crowds lined the streets as a traditional “second
line” musical funeral procession made its way from the
convention center toward the Superdome stadium, where thousands
had huddled for days last year awaiting rescue after levees
gave way, flooding 80 percent of the city.

“RIGHT TO RETURN”

Mayor Ray Nagin and Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, former
commander of military relief operations after Katrina, led the
procession through the city’s business district, followed by
police, firefighters and marine rescue crews.

“I’m a native New Orleanian who is very happy to be home,
and I think if it wasn’t for the first responders we wouldn’t
be here today,” said Patrice Williams-Smith.

Bells tolled in the Crescent City at 9:38 a.m. (1438 GMT)
on Tuesday, marking the minute a year ago that the first
torrent of water from Hurricane Katrina burst through a failing
levee system and began inundating the city.

In the main procession of the day, dancing crowds and famed
“Mardi Gras Indians” in colored feathered costumes followed
brass bands belting out the music that many residents consider
the soul of New Orleans.

Katrina killed about 1,500 people across four states,
hitting hardest in Louisiana and Mississippi, according to the
National Hurricane Center.

Buras, Louisiana, the tiny town where Katrina made landfall
on August 29, 2005, was one of the first in the region to mark
the storm’s anniversary as about 100 people gathered for a
minute of silence at a volunteer fire department station that
is still missing walls wrecked by Katrina.

About 3,300 people lived in Buras before Katrina and the
fishing town has been slow to repopulate.

Many of the city’s poorest remain scattered in temporary
housing across the region and elsewhere. Others are packed into
surrounding suburbs where more houses and apartments survived.

“I’m so angry I’m shaking like a bad pair of dice,”
Stephanie Mingo shouted to cheers at one gathering.

In the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the areas hardest hit by
flooding, hundreds met to march toward downtown to press for
the “right to return” home,

“We’re all together but we’re not all back,” marcher Robert
Stark said, emphasizing the unity of spirit among friends and
relatives scattered around the United States.

(Additional reporting by Russell McCulley)