The Big Easy Rebuilds, Bottom Up

Two and a half years after Hurricane Katrina left 80 percent of New Orleans underwater for weeks, the city, in some ways, has rebounded remarkably.

As of January, it boasted 302,000 residents, according to local data-crunching firm GCR & Associates. In early 2006, the city's official planners had figured that just 247,000 people would be home by September 2008. New Orleanians have achieved much of this success by building and rebuilding on their own or with small-scale help, rather than under top-down government decree. They're showing that thousands of individual planners are better than one master.Of course, a strong government role was necessary to set the stage for New Orleans' progress, and no one doubts that all levels of government fell far short of their responsibilities after the storm. Eventually, the feds did clear millions of tons of debris, among other things. But government, while critical for acute recovery, hasn't driven longer-term reconstruction.

That's not to say it hasn't tried. Weeks after Katrina, city officials unveiled a panel called Bring New Orleans Back, charged with drawing up ambitious recommendations for everything from public transportation to schools. But it quickly became reviled for asking the city to prohibit rebuilding in low-lying neighborhoods – which are vulnerable to flooding – that didn't first "prove their viability."

Nothing was wrong with encouraging New Orleanians to favor higher ground. But trying to do so by government order, rather than through gentler incentives as well as targeted infrastructure and public-services investments, was a losing proposition. A few months later, Mayor Ray Nagin – looking toward re-election and stifled by his own administration's lack of follow-through – abandoned big efforts. "Rebuild at your own risk," he told citizens.

One of those citizens was Father Nguyen The Vien, a Roman Catholic priest in a Vietnamese-American enclave of flooded New Orleans East. Father Vien and his parishioners showed that after a disaster, neighborhood and church connections can mean the difference between reconstruction and abandonment.

Stranded in Houston after Katrina, Father Vien racked up nearly $1,000 in cellphone bills staying in touch with his 6,300 parishioners, holding meetings in a Houston community center. Starting in early October, after New Orleans' government reopened their neighborhood, Father Vien and his flock repaired their church's damage and began using it as a base as they tackled their own houses. Many lived near one another in trailers on a property across from the church.

Five weeks after the hurricane, Father Vien celebrated his first post-flood Mass, showing people worried about being the only family on the block how many residents were returning.