I wish I could welcome you to this wonderful city, but I unfortunately was evacuated to TX and see no way to return. Living month to month on a disability check will probably never give me the oppurtunity to afford. I was very fortunate to land in a tiny town full of good people and my physical, spiritual, and housing needs have been met. Please..on occasion, remind your readers not residing on the Gulf Coast to be kind to those who have been so uprooted. Many, many, have not yet accepted the fact that they may never make it home.

I am SO looking forward to your post in August Steve. I am so thankful that NBC has hung in there and kept us updated on what progress the city and it's people are making. Just know that there are those of us who want to know!

Good to see you assigned to NO. Keep that region in the news. The country needs to hear what's going on there.

Steve,
Please read Chris Rose's commentary today.
http://www.nola.com/rose/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-0/1149833505245800.xml&coll=1
People on the nola.com boards are seconding his opinion. There is a good story for you there.

Hello Steve,
Let me join the list of people welcoming you to our fair city. As others have mentioned before me, there are other areas surronding New Orleans and in the vicintity that need reporting on. Some of the stories i would like to see you reporting on are as follows:
The continuing saga of the Corps of Engineers poor showing in rebuilding our levys and not living up to what they say they are going to do.
The continuing saga of how major large corporations are getting all the major repair contracts and fleecing the tax payers for millions of dollars.
The immigrant illegal works are doing most of the working and grossly under paid if paid at all.
These are just some of the stroies I hope you look at.
Welcome to what is left of our wonderful south.

Please report more on the fact that the US Army Corp of Engineers continues to break their promises. First they said they would finish the flood walls by June 1st. Now, it's expected to be done later this summer. Then they said they would have Jefferson Parish water pumps fully operational for this hurricane season. Now they will only be at 20 percent. Then they said they would complete repairs on the Harvey Canal on the West Bank. Now it won't be completed until 2007. And now current improvements are actually crumbling apart as we speak. A 400-foot section of a repaired levee fell apart just recently. Makes you wonder. If San Francisco improved it's building codes after major earthquakes, why must we accept pre-Katrina, shoddy protection? Both cities are at huge risk of devastation, but one appears more expendable.

I recently relocated to Los Angeles to spend time with my daughter and her family . My decission to leave New Orleans was made after suffering 7 months of mental anguish in the city I have always loved . My parents lost their home due to flooding , then I lost my best friend and father 4 weeks after the storm . People away from New Orleans have no clue what it is to have lost loved ones , your heritage and way of life . Unfortuntely , they have no idea as to the scope of the damage and hardship created by both nature and poor planning by the goverment agencies . Please keep the nation informed and keep the heat turned-up on the government , New Orleans was a great place and can be again !

First, thanks for your volunteering to accept this new assignment. There are still a lot of stories to be told throughout the central Gulf Coast region. And I join a couple of previous writers in reminding you that while New Orleans was tragically hit, there are stories to be told throughout the region, especially in towns more inland such as Covington, Louisiana and Wiggins and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which also recieved significiant damage from Katrina. I am from the Hattiesburg area, and was a youngster when Camille struck in 1969; scariest night of my life, even more than 90 miles inland.

Please keep telling the stories and reminding your viewers that there are people suffering.

Thank you Steve and NBC for keeping the news about N.O. and the other Katrina-ravaged cities in the forefront. I'm a native New Orleanian living in California, I yearn for any and all news about the area. Keep up the good work!!!!

I have visited my extended New Orleans family all of my life. I have been there twice since Katrina. What critics of the coverage miss is the true scope of the devastation. You can't get it from a TV screen. The next time you readers drive to work - 5, 10, 15 miles - imagine EVERY single building has a watermark from one foot off the ground to a line of debris on the roof like trash washed onto a beach. These are the homes and businesses of a city that not only has Mardi Gras; but also ships the bulk of US grain exports, and receives a huge percentage of our country's oil, seafood and other imports. Unless the country is willing to transport thousands of dock workers hundreds of miles daily to work, we have to rebuild New Orleans to support a workforce that is vital to our nation's commerce. And the port is just one major industry in New Orleans. Thanks NBC for keeping the country up-to-date on the progress.

Thanks to you as I have thanked Brian Williams before you. New Orleans is my home and it needs the rest of the world to see and understand what has happened here. Please don't give us up; welcome to you and your family. God bless you.

The individual who wants all the folks from New Orleans out of Houston.....now you know how the rest of Texas feels about your city. Full of crime long before Katrina ever reared her ugly head.

Best of Luck on your new assignment! We love the city for all its warmth and depair for the problems. But find a city that had over 500,000 people and no problems. I want the city to recover and be safe. I admire critics, as long as they have solutions, or at least helpful suggestions.

try to get the folks from New Orleans in Houston to move back to New Orleans...We're sick of the crime and amazed at the failure of the New Orleans educational system...the New Orleans kids performance in testing is a bad joke...So celebrate a city of corruption, institutionalized welfare and a social system teetering on breakdown (and celebrating that fact), make it sound like a fun place and great folks....but it isn't. It's a murder capital, a legal quagmire where felons go unpunished and a carny town populated with opportunistic predators waiting for the next foolish tourist.

Steve - Congatulations on your being in NOLA. Our son is at Tulane and is still enjoying New Orleans and all it has to offers, even if his fall freshman semester was not quite what he (or we) expected. NBC is doing an admirable job of keeping the destruction and the problems in the Gulf Region in the public eye. I agree with the previous post, if only the elected Senators would relaistically deal with the problem and stop playing politics.

My husband and I live outside of Houston, Texas so we are very aware of all that has happened to the Gulf Coast in the last year. We love New Orleans, and have visited there often! I hear from various voices that perhaps we should not rebuild New Orleans, and I am so frightened by the thought of throwing away a whole culture! Please keep speaking out about New Orleans and Mississippi,and Alabama, and all the other coastal towns that have suffered due to Katrina and Rita. We need to help these people rebuild their lives, not throw them away! Please let people know how magical New Orleans is, and the importance of bringing it back! Thank you!

Steve - Congrats on being able to do something I dream about. My husband and I left 2 years ago for a job and want to return to raise our children there. While you are there take time to appreciate everything New Orleans has to offer so you can spread the word about how great the city is. Also - do not miss the opportunity of getting your children a snowball on a hot afternoon. This is one of my greatest childhood memories. And please continue your coverage, the American public needs to know how hard this is.

I am very happy that you will be continuing to bring news to the world of this hurricane ravaged place, but what about BILOXI and the OTHER Miss. areas that were equally and in some cases, MORE tragically hit by Katrina? I hope that you will cover THIS area as well....we are all treating Biloxi as a poor step-child in terms of Katrina news....and in many cases, the damage was even worse, from what I understand.

Steve-I encourage you to pay as much (if not more) attention to the MS Gulf Coast. Until you have seen what the tidal surge AND flooding have done, you will not believe it. Most of the country does not understand the extent of the damage....

Steve:
My wife and I just returned from a visit to her mother in Westwego on the Westbank. This was our 15th trip to New Orleans, and we thought that we were prepared for what we would see. How wrong we were! Nine months after Katrina, it was heartbreaking to see the devastation that still exists and to see so many areas turned into eerily silent ghost towns.

Please continue to shine the light on the progress made so far and on what still needs to be done for many years to come. Anyone who is, as you say, "fatigued of your coverage" should count their blessings, say a prayer of thanks for themselves and a prayer of hope for the people of Louisiana and Mississippi, and make a donation to the rebuilding of an integral part of America.

Good luck to you and your family. I look forward to your continuing reports.

How do we respond to disasters and how do we take of the less fortunate? Very poorly as you can now clearly see. There was a time when citizens of this country felt that we are our brother's keeper. Now, one party has decided we are not our brother's keeper. Instead, it's every man, woman and child for themselves.

While New Orleans needs levees, housing, and police, the Senate is engaged in a three day debate on whether to amend the constitution to enshrine prejudice. New Orleans --indeed the nation-- doesn't have time for this. Enjoy the city, keep reporting (we appreciate NBC staying on this important issue) and don't forget to join a passing parade when you see one.

fantastic new Steve, not only the fact that you will now be reporting regularly from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, but also that your family, and your employer has
made an investment in the area....I hope you and your family come to love the area as i do, and that you will become a permanent resident..

Congratulations on your posting to "Nawlins."

Looking forward to seeing your dispatches...