There are all sorts of reminders of the storms and the levee breaches in New Orleans. When today after work we went to the levee near the lower 9th ward, it was easy to imagine how things fell apart. Even today the water on the business side of the levee is 30% up the wall. The water came over the top, through a couple of breaks in the wall, and then underneath the levee itself, simply devastating the lower 9th. The first houses stood literally less than a football field inside the levee walls, and they were the first to go. The devastation is still vast, but the devastation is not the whole story.
The resilience of the people here is remarkable. They are committed to rebuilding -- the slogan around St. Bernard Parish seems to be "rebuild da parish or get out." They have a great and generous and contagious spirit.
Our work teams are still at it, hanging drywall, mudding, sanding, repairing, improvising solutions. The St. Bernard Project (I can't emphasize how great these young people are!) has just completed its 115th rebuild, but more than 27,000 homes in St. Bernard Parish were destroyed. What governments local, state and federal couldn't do, this group and dozens like them are accomplishing. 
