I grew up in Sulphur LA and spent many summer days down in Holly Beach and Cameron. To know that everything I am familiar with is gone, reduced to concrete slabs is incomprehensible. I brought my mother home to Sulphur a week after Rita hit for a LOOK AND LEAVE and the destruction there was awe-shocking enough; I could not fathom the destruction south. Thanks to the Nightly News we get to see firsthand. I am challenging NBC to keep the Gulf Coast rebuilding process in the limelight - the celebrities have moved on to their new causes, I implore the media to not follow suit. And remember it was not just Katrina, it was Rita as well. And Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.....

I was glad to read about the schools, and (later) to have their addresses, but one thing puzzles me: It seems that every school I read about is a parochial school. Aren't there public schools which also need assistance?

Thank you from the bottom of my (cracked) heart, for coverage of my home of many years. Not to be ugly, but New Orleans is not all there is to Louisiana.SWLA is home to some of the most wonderful people in the world, bar none! Their history, culture, resilience, their optimism and humor in the face of disaster, is well known regionally, but not nationally. Hopefully, your stories will change that. I would also like to point out that the staff and management of the NBC affiliate in Lake Charles, KPLCTV, stayed behind during the storm, and because of their Herculean efforts, lives were saved. To many of us who evacuated, they were the ONLY link to home, through KPLCTV.com.

My feet are now in Greenville, Tx., but part of my heart will forever be in SW La.

It took Nightly News long enough to cover the areas hit by Hurricane Rita. I spent two weeks working in Calcaseiu Parish - Lake Charles in October and quite frustrated that this parish had pretty much been forgotten because most of the resources went Hurricane Katrina...Thank you NBC for finally bringing Calcaseiu Parish and Cameronto the forefront. Now lets get some help to the people there!

I want to commend Brian Williams upon the "forgotten" coverage of the tragic plight of the poor people in New Orleans. Our government has been pitifully neglectful of our fellow Americans. I no longer recognize our country as the great, compassionate and light it once was!

Hollybeach has enjoyed popularity in recent years as the "Cajun Riviera". French music and Louisiana-style festivals flourished. We who experienced loss of property and lifestyle from the devistation of Rita may never be the same. I lived in Deatonville, a small community between Lake Charles and Cameron. We lost our home, as many, many others did. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when we finally made it back to "the Island", as we liked to call it. We appreciate your coverage. Thanks for recognizing the loss we are all attempting to cope with. I miss my home.

Thank you for reporting about this area. Many in Cameron and Calcasieu Parish feel that the national media has ignored our area because we did have the drama to display as New Orleans did. As you showed, Cameron and the beach areas were devasted. We feel we are a success story in some ways. Residents in Cameron Parish evacuated when told to and most residents of Calcasieu Parish did so as well. Our local parish and city leaders and city workers (police, fire, public works) were wonderful and executed a well thought out plan. But yet there was little coverage about their efforts. Please continue to report about Cameron Parish and their residents and about the destruction the hurricane caused further inland in Calcasieu Parish. Don't let the public forget that many people are homeless or dealing with damages to their home.

I am from Cameron, La. I really do appreciate all of the relief workers that came to help! Yall are all blessings from God.

I traveled to south vermilion parish yesterday(where i grew up and own property), and the devastation that i saw has saddened me very much. i traveled south on Highway 82, until the national guard wouldn't let me continue to pecan island. i hear that is somewhat like cameron parish. the worst damage i saw was on the highway 82 stretch that intersects hwy. 35. homes literally obliterated, and damage in the local cemetery in esther. fallen oak trees everywhere.

My wife and I spent the month of February, 2005 in Biloxi and toured the coast from Alabama to New Orleans. Fell in love with Pass Cristian, Gulfport, Ocean Springs and Biloxi.
I don't believe the rest of world knows how badly these places and people have been hit.
Our hearts go out to these people.
Thanks NBC for keeping this story alive. It can only help.

I am a Cameron resident. I am so aggrevated about the publicity that we are not recieving. We lost everything.....Our house is standing but it is way past not being lived in. My mother in laws business was completly destroyed. My parents restaurant is now just a cement slab.

I understand that the people of New ORleans had damage too.....but what about us????? Here it is over a month after Hurricane Rita hit, FEMA has still not been to my home. Thank goodness for family that did not live there. Other than that there would have been no where for me my husband or my 1 year old to live. So where is our help here???? Tonight is the first time i have seen any publicity past our regular news....The first time on national news........Sorry for complaining....but where is our help to????

I am from cameron and it dependes on how high we have to go if we move back.

Wow. I am floored. I mean, I knew there was horrible devastation like this, but to FEEL it through your words . . . . Sometimes, with my anxiety disorders (sorry, afraid I'm mentioning em too much but that's part of how I experience the news), I have to turn off the news or else become consumed with fear. I am finding this blog, in some ways, to be a way to really FEEL what it is like, without becoming buried in the fear and anxiety. It's a snapshot, in words. I have a very good imagination, so I am easily able to "see" what you are saying. I appreciate the expressiveness and content of your experiences.

Thanks for touching me with your words, and meaning.

I just returned from 2 weeks of providing disaster relief with the Red Cross. Pieces of my heart are still in Cameron. I was profoundly shaken by my visit there and to Holly Beach. I was also deeply touched by my conversations with Cameron residents there and at the shelter in Lafayette. Their resiliency and hope were an inspiration to me. I hope to visit again.