Residents across Gulf remember Katrina’s might, recovery

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Churches along coastal Mississippi tolled their bells in unison Saturday morning to mark the 10th anniversary of the day that Hurricane Katrina - one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history - made landfall.

Residents in Mississippi and Louisiana were marking the somber anniversary by paying homage to those who died in Katrina, to thank those who came to rebuild and celebrate how far the region has come since the hurricane struck.

In Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, the ringing of church bells provoked sadness and tears.

Eloise Allen, 80, wept softly into a tissue and leaned against her rusting Oldsmobile as bells chimed at Our Lady of the Sea Catholic Church just across a two-lane street from a sun-drenched beach at Bay St. Louis.

She said her home, farther inland, was damaged but livable. Her daughter lost her home in nearby Waveland. Many of her friends and neighbors suffered similarly.

"I feel guilty," she said. I didn't go through what all the other people did."

In Biloxi, clergy and community leaders were to gather at MGM Park for a memorial to Katrina's victims and later that evening the park will host a concert celebrating the recovery.

The hurricane's force and flooding ultimately caused more than 1,800 deaths and roughly $151 billion in damage across the region. In New Orleans, wide scale failures of the levee system protecting the city left 80 percent of New Orleans under water.

Katrina's force caused a massive storm surge that scoured the Mississippi coast, pushed boats far inland and wiped houses off the map, leaving only concrete front steps to nowhere.

Glitzy casinos and condominium towers have been rebuilt. But overgrown lots and empty slabs speak to the slow recovery in some communities.

In New Orleans officials will lay wreaths at the hurricane memorial and at the levee that ruptured in the Lower 9th Ward.

The neighborhood was one of the bastions of black homeownership in America when water burst through floodwalls on one side, pushing houses passed down through generations off foundations and trapped residents on rooftops pleading for help from passing helicopters.

The neighborhood still has some of the lowest rates of people who've returned after the storm, but they will be having a daylong celebration to mark the progress they have made.

Across the city volunteers will also spread out in a day of service working on various projects.

Other neighborhoods such as Broadmoor and Lakeview - both recognized as post-Katrina comeback stories - will also be holding events Saturday.

In the evening, former President Bill Clinton will headline a free concert-prayer service-celebration at the city's Smoothie King Center. In addition to the former president the event will feature performances by the city's "Rebirth Brass Band," award-winning journalist Soledad O'Brien and Chief Monk Boudreaux and the Wild Magnolias.

The city has framed the 10th anniversary as a showcase designed to demonstrate to the world how far the city has come. In a series of events in the week leading up to the actual anniversary, the city has held lectures, given tours of the levee improvements and released a resiliency plan.

Many parts of this iconic city have rebounded phenomenally while many residents - particularly in the city's black community - still struggle.

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