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New Orleans marks Katrina with music, tributes

Posted on: Tuesday, 29 August 2006, 19:08 CDT

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)

Source: REUTERS

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