I hear the music. How sweet the sound!

thank you and G-d bless to all the volunteers, law enforcement, everyone who has come here to help. we are forever grateful to you. please know that if a tragedy were to strike you- we will be there in a flash to return the favor.
i am back in my house and the fema trailer is gone. yippee!!!

Navah--Wonderful news about being back in your house and the trailer being gone! Hope you and your family are able to spend many long and happy years in your home! Mazeltov!

Most of these post I have not read. I skipped a few and than there was one saying you do not know about the poor. Well I will tell you that you all do not know about the elderly. I know two wonderful people who sit in their FEMA trailer waiting for Habit for Humanity to accept them after they were turned down by grant money. They have no home, their is no senior group home center for them. They have nothing.
I ask all of you, what about the elderly. I once read a comment by Mayor Longo that said how the elderly sit in their FEMA trailer waiting. There is more, I don't remember, but it was not good.
Also everyone out thru the US need to understand even the ones that are in their reconstructed homes still suffer. My heart has never been so broken, I have never been brought to tears so easily. I have cried when someone filled a parking meter, I have cried when someone gave me a gift of something that had a value of $10.
After this your world changes, your heart that has broken remains that way. This is something that stays in everyone one of us forever. People who live miles away from of but work with us who did not loose their home still do not understand.
This is something difficult to shake off and none of you have an idea what something like this does to us.
We now can at times have smiles on our faces but yes, there are lots of times that the Katrina blank face, cold, hard, scared comes back to us. Not being able to look people in the eye. Mentally, we will never recover.

A survivor, I wish I could give you a hug and a Valium. Blessings .....

A survivor--Your thought-provoking, heart-wrenching post brings tears to my eyes. I feel especially sad that survivors such as yourself have essentially been left alone with your pain, and this is not the time for that.

I hope the wonderful elderly people in the FEMA trailer you mention are able to get help from Habitat for Humanity or a similar group, and get it soon--that's awful, about their having been turned down for grant money.

But what's saddest is how you describe being heartbroken, how little things can make you cry, and how mentally you'll never recover. And how even people in reconstructed homes still suffer, and that people from miles away who have been working with you still do not understand.

I live miles away, too, so perhaps I don't understand either, but I care a great deal and can imagine and make a few guesses as to why, anyway.

Even with a rebuilt home, if everything else in your world has changed so much, including familiar landmarks and favorite places now gone forever, you can still feel lost and very sad because your world now looks so different and you miss these sights and haunts.

Perhaps your daily routine is now substantially different--and there are things you'd been able to do and places you were able to go regularly before the storm, that you aren't able to, again because of how your world has changed.

Maybe in a new home, you still miss your old house, not to mention other things you had before the storm. The insensitive and cynical will say it's only "stuff" that can easily be replaced, but they fail to take into account that over time "stuff" can develop sentimental value so replacements just wouldn't be the same. Then there are photos and other one-of-a-kind keepsakes that not only have sentimental value but are truly irreplaceable.

Last but not least--I hope this isn't true in your case, but if it is...if you lost any loved ones or anybody else you know, either in the storm or in the stress of its aftermath...

It's easy to imagine how heartbroken any or all of those things would leave you. So I THINK I understand. It sounds like you're going through too much pain to have to deal with it all by yourself, which you shouldn't have to do.

I hope you have or are able to find someone kind, caring, and sympathetic you can talk to and unburden yourself and share everything you're heartbroken over with at this difficult time. That sounds like what you need.

I did notice something positive, though--you signed yourself "A survivor" instead of "A victim." Because you truly are a survivor. That is a good sign.

Take care, stay strong, and God bless.

Dear Survivor, Having lost our home, my car, my job and 98% of our belongings, I feel qualified to comment on your blog. You are right. This will stay with us forever, it is difficult to shake off and you are right when you say if you didn't lose your home you will never truly understand the mental and physical tormoil that we have experienced. However, WE WILL RECOVER. Scarred maybe, but recovered!!! Have faith. It's what I cling to daily to get through the aftermath.

Olivia thank you so very much for your kind words. Another example how little things make a difference. I think I can speak for many that just words of understanding, or trying mean so very very much.
The sad part is so many people hurt but very few actually discuss it. I have a few friends who admit to the pain, the tears. I am sure Suffering in BSL would agree to this comment and thanks for admitting the difficult we all share.
Another extremly sad part is still this week I feel the blank express take over. It is hard to hide and worst when someone comments on "you look unhappy" or etc. when you are shopping or wherever and it is a stranger. I am getting very close to being honest as to what might be burdening me at that moment.
I know things will get better, bldgs will be new, slow progess is in the making.
I am one of so many who lost the children's video's (I am lucky, I took some of the pictures). I am one of so many who luckly have two pictures of themseleves as a child. You loose your history, your families history, it is not so simple what we lost. Some children no longer even have one picture of their grandparents, that is extremly sad.
Andy, thanks for the thought of a hug, those mean so much now a days!

Matteo says:

"Yes, I think I see where this is going. The residents of NOLA are lazy, ungrateful and underserving, right? What kind of people do we historically associate those qualities with? Hmm... Black people, maybe? Where the people in this story, the good roll-up-your-shirtsleeves git-r-done people depicted, are all white."

Oh dear, oh my! Sounds pretty darn racist to me! My family is one of only two white families in my new neighborhood, and all of my neighbors are working hard to get themselves back in their homes and back to normal...while at the same time, a few (a *very* few)of the people in this town are indeed sitting around waiting for someone else to fix the problem - most of those guys are white. Your assumption is false on all sides, and is clearly based on outdated stereotypes. Unless you have actually visited this area and worked alongside the people of South Mississippi (black and white and Asian, too), maybe you should seize this opportunity to remain silent; your ignorance is showing!

Jesus, man why won't MSNBC Update more often?............Dang this ai'nt right dogonatt!...............Gurrrrrr!.....No YERF ! dangitt!

Let's give the folks in New Orleans half a benefit of the doubt. Of course they are waiting on the government. Why should they roll up thier sleeves and rebuild when the levees are worse than before Katrina? Are the people lazy? Of course they are that's why it is the Big Easy.If nothing else gut your homes and mow the grass. This goes for the Coast as well as NO. Glad to see Hancock Bank finally stepping up to the plate and cleaning their mess in the face of BSL residents trying to rebuilt after all this time. It was a crying shame to hear of the record revenues generated by us while they wait to put a tarp on the building.

If you want to help the left behind animals on the Mississippi Gulf Coast then check out mesbeth.com/animals.html. You will find this very interesting.

The band-members should be example to all of our youth that it is not the circumstances that define us, but we who define the circumstances - - based on our spirit and attitude.

This article promotes hope, which provides energy to keep going despite difficult circumstances.

And, I hope that we all move to help these neighbors in Mississippi and Louisiana keep up their spirits and hope by sharing/giving some of our resources - - money and time. I would like to invite Scott Lang, who commented above, to perhaps suggest to some of our band programs to partner with some of the schools in Mississippi and Louisiana and help them out with their music programs and I would like to invite those schools in Mississippi and Louisiana to let us know how (we) other bands can help them.

Let's move in tempo with these kids!