I wrote the following in August 2006 when New Orleans was still abandoned, the citizens still relocated, the housing still debris one year after Katrina rolled through and the levees were breached.
Now approaching the five-year anniversary, it's still difficult to gauge what has been lost forever.
In my visits to New Orleans, what impressed me most was the unique vibrancy that was completely a creation of the culture fusion of its people.
It was the 80's - my job was the victim of the Reagan-era mergermania of corporate interests, but I was offered a transfer to the new headquarters, located directly across from the Superdome. After several trips, and tours of the neighborhoods and investigation of options for my family, I declined and parachuted out to California. Later, when I thought of thousands trapped in the Superdome, it gave me shivers.
