MARCH 15, 2006

NEW ORLEANS, LA., 10 A.M. -- Some impressions from a ride around the Lakeview and Lake Vista parts of the city:

Some things haven't changed or are back running: lines at the Metairie Winn-Dixie, cafe au lait and beignets at the Morning Call, morning commuter traffic. A morning walker waited for cars to cross so she could continue her exercise. Girls wearing plaid kilt uniform skirts get out of cars to go into a local Catholic school.

But the block after block of devastation is numbing. There are For Sale signs in front of houses you'd think no one would ever buy. Blue tarps dot the area to cover roofs. FEMA trailers sit on blocks in front of some houses; others seem abandoned - - or people are back inside living in conditions that seem fine. ... Grass in parks and green areas is uncut. Piles of rubble litter streets. ... It's not uncommon to see dirty cars, obviously victims of floodwaters, to be turned upside down or on their sides. There was even a stripped Rolls Royce along one street.

Below are some more photos of the Big Easy, where things still aren't too easy.

This tattered American flag flies in the cool morning breeze outside a destroyed house in Lakeview.

Flood waters obviously knocked this house off its foundation. In the close-up below, you can see someone's belongings piled in a doorway.

This is typical of the mess along some of the streets near Robert E. Lee Blvd.

You don't have to go far to find tarps on the tops of houses.

Or FEMA trailers in front of homes that people seem to be repairing.

Note the For Sale sign in front of this home.

This logpile apparently took up a mile of a median along West End Boulevard; not much is left of this temporary landfill now.

While things are recoving in Lakeview, life goes on - - party after party - - in the French Quarter, shown above at dawn.

MARCH 14, 2006

NEW ORLEANS, LA., 4 P.M. -- My nose still burns from dust particles and goodness-knows-what-else that floated through the air in an area of New Orleans under water six months ago.

Six months after the storm and flooding, the city is coming back to life. But New Orleans still has a ways to go. Some of the traffic lights downtown still don't work. There's still evidence of the storm's fury - - blue tarps over roofs, piles of water-soaked trash, evidence of the fury of the storm can be seen everywhere. We'll have more pictures here in the days to come...

-- Andy Brack, president, Center for a Better South

Six months after the storm, trash is piled high along a major thoroughfare (West End Blvd) in a middle-class neighborhood near where a levee broke.

A worker wears a cloth suit and breathing mask as she stops traffic while crews clean up near the corner of Fleur de Lis and 26th street.

You can see trailers in front yards of people along 26th Street.