Tara Legendre, Charles Franklin, J’mya, Tajah and Tara
"I was in the Superdome. I just wanted to give up. Man, I wanted to give up so bad, but I didn't. God helped me get through that one." —- Tara Legendre
The Gettridges
"I never thought I'd be homeless. I never thought I would ever be homeless, you know? And right now, I'm homeless." — Jules Gettridge
Wayne Abney
Abney's FEMA trailer caught fire. He says: "Everything I replaced after Katrina was in that trailer and now it's gone too. I lost everything twice."
Connie Crapeau
"I just want my normal life back. I'm tired. I want to get back to normal."
Cheryl Ritter
"It was really spooky when we come back. No birds, no insects, no lizards, no bees, no nothing. But everything is coming back and it's coming back slow."
Terry Halsell and Devin Alphonse
"Right now, the only thing I'm trying to do is help out the city, you know what I'm saying?" — Terry Halsell
Charles Bennett
Business is booming for clean-up contractor from Gonzales, LA. Bennett, born and raised in New Orleans, says of his old neighborhood: "Killing everywhere; everywhere you go, you've got killing. It's sad."
Danny Kattan
"Every house has a story to tell. You can see where they raised generation after generation."
George and Doris Fillar
"I sure would like to get into the house after living in this trailer. I feel like I've shrunk about three inches." —George Fillar
Jennifer Combs
"I was more afraid of the authorities down there than I was afraid of anyone else!"
Mary Burns
"I believe that all of this mess, the slow response, was due to political head-games."
Valine Bentley and Rayford Browder
"We got stuck at the convention center -- the worst experience you've ever seen. People just going crazy. We didn't have security. Could barely sleep. People dehydrated. People having strokes, heart attacks."—Valine Bentley
Sandy Schaefer
"If you've ever seen The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy is unconscious and she sees the Witch pedaling by and all that stuff, that's the way it was. You'd see a piece of tarpaper go by, then you'd see part of a roof go by, then you'd see some siding go by."
Renee Gay
"Hurricane Katrina is so mean/I can't believe what I've seen/It ruined our house and our school/It really isn't very cool/It ruined our lives and all those good times." —From the poem, "Katrina is Mean" by
Jessica Shaw
"The war of Katrina beat hard on my life,she hit me with a left,she hit me with a right..."
Mark Morice
During the storm, "my buddy Beau looked at me, and he's not a very religious guy, and he said, 'Mark, I really think we ought to say a Hail Mary,' and I looked at him and I said, 'maybe we ought to have a Bloody Mary.'"
Elieen Duke
"The National Guard, I'm grateful that they were protecting the city, but they were just so gung-ho. I'm sure you've heard that. They were scaring us!"
