I THINK THE HABITATM FOR HUMANITY IS ABSOLUTELY THE BEST IDEA ANYONE HAS COME UP WITH. TOO BAD OUR GOVERNMENT CAN'T LEARN A LESSON FROM THESE FANTASTIC VOLUNTEERS.

congrats... and welcome home !!!!!

With all of the sadness this anniversary brings, it is wonderful to see a story of hope and accomplishment! Hopefully local officials will soon realize that this is an issue worth a little compromise.

I wish you all the best and enjoy your beautiful home

Thank the gods for HFH because the government surely isn't stepping up to the plate. New Orleans is still a mess. What you see in the media are carefully chosen photo ops. GO there for yourself and see and smell and feel it. Bush thinks that if he shows his face in a church and makes a few insincere comments in a poor attempt to express his false compassion that he will redeem himself. He planned and allowed for this suffering to happen. If he was REALLY serious about his big talk he throws around, he'd get rid of the useless jarheads at the Army COE and cut through the bureaucracy he is creating and put the money up front to pay the Dutch to come in and build REAL levees. He can take the money from that farce he has created in the Middle East. He needs to put his money where his mouth is. But he won't. We all know that.

MY husband and I started building our home, and instead of hiring plumbers and electricians we read books and did it ourselves. The inspectors were helpful to tell how to correct any problems and passed inspections the second time.
Kathryn Gray Weatherford Texas

i hope that people now see that color is blind when it comes to a disaster like this. maybe everyone will realize that we need each other, no matter your race. we need to join and help one another like a family suppose to.

A wonderful story of the human spirit and hope in such awful devastation! It shows the goodness of human beings when everyone works together for a common good.

All the Volunteers for HFH should be commended. I live in Minnesota and took a month of personal leave to come down to Lousiana to help with the clean up in the Covington area. HFH had close to 8 new homes going up right down the street from where we worked. I never saw so many hard working individuals, and they looked like the loved what they were doing. I breaks my heart to see that a year later things are still a mess. President Bush needs to take the blame for this and make it right for all those people who are still waiting for some help

After reading the stoy of the teen by the name Vickey Brown I wondered what happened to her grandmother who stayed behind. anybody know?

After visiting Biloxi twice and spending my time cleaning and gutting homes, it was a pleasure to do something "productive", building a home with Habitat in Waveland.
Habitat is an awesome group! I would recommend them to anyone looking for a way to volunteer in the GUlf.

Congrats on the new home!!! In response to some of the other comments...I am so sick of hearing about our government (aka Bush) not giving enough to hurricane victims. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not Bush's number one fan; however, it is not our government's responsibility to give all displaced victims of natural disasters a place to live and to support them. At what point do the handouts stop and the excuses end? We live in the greatest nation of all and we are great because we have the freedom to be independant and to do for ourselves. People lose their houses everyday due to forces out of their control (fires, earthquake, hurricane, etc.) For one, if you live someplace that is prone to hurricanes, you should have insurance. Which leads to my next comment...if you want to really place blame, blame the insurance companies and the laws governing them. The insurance industry practices modern day extortion and racketeering. We pay and pay and pay for protection that may or may not cover us in the long run.

Evelyn,
I'm overjoyed to hear you have a new home! It is so good to read some positive news about home. Stay strong, and remind them what kind of people we really are. Congratulations!

Habitat is a great organization, but you get 40 people in a home no one can work properly!.........trust me I've been there. Shoot that many vollonteers work on 2 or 3 homes at a time! that will make more folks happy. Bless ya Evelyn!

rock on guys way to go

To all those who are placing the blame for the Katrina disaster and recovery effort on President Bush and the federal governments' response, when will you realize that it is NOT the federal government's responsibiity to give every citizen everything they need to live! Yes, plenty of things could have been done better, but local and state governments and agencies have to bear a responsibility also. All the people who are choosing to keep their hand out instead of turning it to progress for themselves will always be present in our society, and history, recent history at that, proves these types can never be given enough to make them satified. Organizations like Habitat and all the civic and church based volunteer groups should be the ones called on for long term assistance in disasters. Your government is not there to wetnurse you for your whole life. Get off the dole and do some work yourself.

That happened here (Tyler, TX) too. My friend works for HFH and they held a special "meeting" yesterday to tell 7 families at one time that they were all getting homes. But it was extra special for one family because they were from NO, and yesterday had been bittersweet until they got their news. She said there wasn't a dry eye in the room. I think HFH is a WONDERFUL organization and am proud to have helped on their sites. By the way, HFH stands for Habitat for Humanity if you are a little confused, because of my friend, that's what we call it.

Can someone please tell me how the president is to blame for the hurricane and the damage in Waveland, Pass Christian, and BSL? If the president caused the damage to anything on the Gulf, I will start praying to him, because he must be God. Lets keep it in our heads that if this hurricane had developed in the late 90's we would have Clinton to blame, because he did nothing to restructure the levees as well. Timing is everything here. Also, an FYI for G.L. Dupuy levees have NOTHING to do with the flooding in Waveland, PC, or BSL. IN ADDITION TO THAT, the Dutch build some great levees, but does anyone know how their levees will withstand a CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE??? NO, because you simply dont get Cat 5 hurricanes, or ANY hurricanes off the North Sea. Yeah, you get some strong winds, I wont refute that, BUT NOTHING LIKE A CAT 5 HURRICANE. So, before we all go stroking Dutch ego's and demeaning the Army COE, lets put this in perspective. Thank you. Also, to stay on topic, I think that Habitat is an amazing organization, perhaps next time I will donate my money to them rather than to various "victims" funds. Keep up the good work HFH!

this is a great program and something that is best handled without government interference...Glad to see the progress this group makes.

I have a very good friend who lives in New Orleans. When I asked her about the current situation with housing and the different types of assistance for those still struggling with instability and lack of decent housing, her comment was that people aren't trying to help themselves. For her to say this means there's a real problem in NO. So maybe folks should ban together NOW and try to help one another, figure out ways to get homes for those who desperately need them and then learn how to use those resources that are available and not costly. HFH is a first step; volunteer on several projects, then see who has bigger needs among family members and friends. If a larger house needs refurbishing, look into that and maybe rent out part of the home. That can serve so many purposes. Whatever it takes to stabilize needs to be a top priority.

I commend Habitat For Humanity. With virtually no affordable housing for the working poor, most of whom pay taxes and U.S. citizens, this organization has done more that the U.S. Government to provide such affordable housing to many people. I am reminded by the saying that when a government and/or those placed in power demonstrate a lack of empathy for the less advantaged that government will itself fail. It's easy for the Republicans to say that one should pull himself/herself up by the bootstrap and move on. Sometimes, all one needs is a little help to regain a foothold back into society where he/she can once again be a contributing member to society.

To all the bleeding heart liberals who think that the Gov't owes replacements items to every person who lost possessions in Katrina, get a grip on reality. If these people had lost their their homes and possessions singularly in a fire, etc. would you think the Gov't would owe them. No I would think not. Its because there are so many people that you think the Gov't should fit the bill for it all. Sorry, I disagree. I do not want to pay more in taxes to cover uninsured losses. I do agree most addimently that the Gov't should force the insurance companies to pay up on losses or else face severe penalities.

As to rebuilding in the Gulf area, sorry but I don't think it should be rebuilt. I live in Southern California and I have the same opinion about the idiots that build on the side of hill because it has a nice view. And then along comes a earthquake and their house is now at the bottom of the hill. They chose to live in a high risk area. If their insurance company won't pay, tough. Take them to court. But I surely do not want to see the Gov't pick up the tab.

If a person or entity wants to gamble, have at it. But if they lose, it's their loss, not mine. I don't ask anyone to reimburse me when I lose in Las Vegas and as I see it, this is the same thing. Living in an area KNOWN to have repeating diasaters invites problems and if one chooses to do so, it is on their own recourse to take what comes their way.

And I don't care if you disagree with me. I didn't ask your opinion. And if you think I'm cold hearted, guess what, your right in the case!!

I totally agree with all you said Gene but I think that if the Govn't isn't going to pay for our natural disasters then why are we sending so much money to other countries for typhoons when we could be rebuilding our own nation. I would certainly like to see that $ go towards my homeland other than being dished out so freely to those who need help elsewhere. I am all about helping out my fellow neighbor when in need but a homeless man doens't give you money because he has none! Catch my drift? If we are supposedly over budget for Katrina why are we dishing out money for typhoons? Doesn't make sense. Guess my point is I don't think Bush is to blame for this horrible disaster but he could be focusing on doing the things to make it easier for those in need. Focusing his attention on his own nation would be a good start.

Evelyn,

Enjoy your new home! Hope you have many more happy years in it!

Habitat for Humanity is a marvelous group, wish there were many more such groups--then disaster survivors wouldn't have to spend so much time in FEMA trailers.

To Dana of Houston, TX -

Have you ever seen the Deltaworks in the Netherlands? To call it a levee system is to call the Grand Canyon just another hole in the ground. No, it's never been proven that the Deltaworks can withstand a Category 5 hurricane. But we _know_ that the levee system in NO can't withstand a 3.

As for stroking Dutch egos - well, frankly, they deserve it.