Seriously. What happened to the country I grew up in? It may not have ever existed, but I used to be convinced that if something terrible, like this, happened to me, I'd at least get a hand up to help me get onto my feet. These poor people in New Orleans are getting a shove out the door. And I use "poor" as in "poor" and as in "Haven't got any money." What the hell happened?

Here in Lafayette city officials are reopening the shelters as around 2,200 persons are being asked, 5 months after the storms, to vacate. Rentals and home proces have doubled or tripled with the influx. So has unemployment. There are jobs, of course, at fast food places, but who can survive on $6 an hour McJobs?

Yes, a terrible thing has happened but can we really have tens of thousands of people become permanent 'wards of the state' looking to government for their housing, utilities, food, clothing?

Who's going to accept that and who wants to pay for it? This is a small, poor state which is already cutting millions from higher education and virtually every state and local program is strapped to the breaking point.

We lost, between Katrina and Rita, around a quarter of our economy.

Don't lose sight of the fact that we're only a couple of months out from the next hurricane season. What if this one takes out, say, Miami?

There are no words to describe what a horrendous, inhumane, atrocity this is. I'm furious, flabbergasted, hurt and shocked. After Hurricane Katrina, we went through two weeks without power, (hence utilities such as telephone, computer, cooking, etc) in Miami Beach and you could walk through the streets and feel the ominous mood. People felt demoralized. And this was only two weeks! Certain parts of Miami went without power for a month or two, some still are living with the effects, and it is not easy. I've lived through several hurricanes; most notably Hurricane David in the Caribbean (176 MPH) and never was there this level of incompetence, stupidity and insensitivity. This is the United States of America! The people of New Orleans, men, women and children, have been without homes, without comfort -- after a traumatic disaster -- and now they're going to be homeless???? This is beyond the pale. There should be a decided uproar over this. This is greater than mere injustice. This is calculated cruelty.

I am a Katrina evacuee, refugee..survivor, whatever you want to call it. I lived near the Lower Garden District, so my apartment wasn't badly damaged. But it was enough that my husband, brother and I had to leave. We were lucky, we had another place to go to.

I worked with poor New Orleanians every day. My office was in a public housing development. I saw and heard the stories every day. When I left New Orleans, the first thing I wondered was how "my people" were going to fare.

I am living in N. Florida now - and I have a better job. But I miss New Orleans with every part of me. I feel guilty that I am not there to try to help people in some way. But I don't have enough money to support myself and do what needs to be done and I wasn't making enough to do it when I worked in New Orleans.

I am not surprised that a rich white New Orleanian doesn't understand what the people are going through. They never have. They always sat in bars, passing judgement and coming to conclusions that were 100% wrong. These are the same people who screamed bloody murder when Nagin made his "chocolate city" statement. Where was that indignation when HUD Secretary Jackson said New Orleans wouldn't be "as black as it was?" That was just what they wanted to hear.

I always noticed one thing about Mardi Gras that always annoyed me greatly. When the floats are passing and the people are yelling, "Throw me something, Mister!" you can see the riders scanning the crowd for the white faces. They look over the uplifted and hopeful faces of little black children and throw their best and nicest beads over their heads to the white children. I have seen the little black children look with envy and confusion at the white families who take their children home before the parade is over because they have bags and bags of big, nice beads, stuffed animals and cups. The little black children have plain, cheap beads and they don't understand why they can't get the big nice ones, too. I have given my beads to kids sometimes, my heart aching for them. Not that I got the nicest ones all the time, but I knew people in some of the parades and sometimes got the good ones.

Today, we are burying Coretta Scott King. What have we learned from her life and the life of her husband? We are still looking for that dream that he had. It was and is, still just a dream.

It's just that it's never really made the national news before, so unless you live near an area that's been hit, you wouldn't have heard what's going on. I live about forty miles east of Pensacola. I read their newspapers, and watch their local tv news. After Hurricane Ivan slammed that city hard, rents for undamaged housing went up 30-100%, FEMA was slow to get trailers to many areas, and other assistance was also slow to come. And then the Florida Panhandle got an influx of Katrina evacuees, which made housing even harder to find for lower income locals because the Katrina evacuees got bumped to the top of the housing assistance lists.

I think a lot of people underestimate how long and hard the hurricane recovery process can be. There were still blue-tarped roofs and totaled but still standing homes here a year after Ivan went through. Estimates say that it will take Pensacola another five to ten years to recover from Ivan, and in that case, we're talking damage that was severe but not catastrophic. If there was a perfect recovery plan for New Orleans and the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coasts, and that plan went into action today, it would still take a generation for the area to recover to what it was in 2004. There's a private boys' school from the Desire Street projects that relocated for the school year to a 4-H camp down the road from my house, and everyone involved talks about starting the next school year back in New Orleans, but sadly, I can't see that happening.

What needed to happen some time back in about November was for FEMA to tell people from the worst hit areas that a lot of them were going to be lucky if it only took 2-3 years before the cities and towns where they once lived could support them going home again, and then had local groups really work to transition them into full time jobs and somewhat permanent housing situations in a place that hopefully wasn't too far away from where they used to live. It sounds harsh, but in some ways is fairer to people than string them along and telling them it will be okay in a little bit would be.