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Faces from the Gulf: South Plaquemines High

"OHHHHH, TEAM, BREAK IT DOWN! OFFENSE! BREAK IT DOWN! DEFENSE! BREAK IT DOWN! HURRICANES! SPELL IT OUT! H-U-R-R-I-C-A-N-E-S! CANES ON THREE, CANES ON THREE! 1,2,3, CANES!"

Those were the sounds of the South Plaquemines High School football team on a recent Friday night during their first game of the season. This "Friday Night Lights" moment was not unlike thousands of others playing out in small towns across the country. But it differed in one respect. These players were making a comeback a year after Katrina destroyed their homes, school and community. You can see Martin Savidge's inspirational story on the Hurricanes tonight on Weekend Nightly News.

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From Rudy to Ray

A day after watching former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani talk about how his city has changed in the five years since 9/11, it was fascinating for me to watch another mayor talk about the changes his city has undergone since its disaster.

Today, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin held a long-anticipated news conference to update citizens on the progress of his "100-day plan." Mr. Nagin made a major pledge upon his re-election to improve the city's quality of life within his first 100 days. But over the past few months, columnists, radio talk show hosts and citizens have taken the mayor to task for not defining his vision for the city's recovery.

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Faces from the Gulf: Douglas Brinkley

"You can't have a major urban center if you don't have schools that are working, if you don't have hospitals that can run, if you don't have electricity you can count on. Everybody's still in limbo and that's a pity a year after the storm."
Douglas Brinkley
New Orleans resident and author

I spoke with Doug Brinkley last week in the Ninth Ward. He is the author of the "Great Deluge," which chronicled Katrina and its aftermath. Although he notes the enormous amount of progress, Brinkley expresses concerned about the future of the Ninth Ward and the city itself. He believes New Orleans can maintain its status as a major American city, but only if more basic services are available to residents who wish to return.

Photo caption: Doug Brinkley talks to Steve in the Ninth Ward. Courtesy of NBC News.

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Faces from the Gulf: Steven Smith

"This was my apartment right here. Ain't too much to see (now) except an empty slab. That's the only thing I want to know: What are they going to do with this land? Are they going to rebuild it or just let it go?"
Steven Smith

Steven Smith returned to New Orleans this week from Houston to look at what remained of his apartment complex. He's one of several former residents we've been talking to this week as we prepare stories for the upcoming anniversary of Katrina. As we walked the muddy field where it once stood, he talked about his desire to return permanently to his hometown. Smith lost nearly all his belongings in the flooding that followed Katrina. He's eager to come home to his old neighborhood because he says he's had a hard time finding an affordable apartment in other parts of the city.

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Faces from the Gulf: Don Powell

"We're not moving as fast as we need to be moving and there's days I feel we didn't do as well as we should have done today. I think with any recovery process, you need to remember, it's not an event, it is a process."
Don Powell
Federal Coordinator, Gulf Coast Recovery

I spoke with Don Powell a few weeks ago during one of his scheduled tours through New Orleans. He seemed pleased to see large sections of the Ninth Ward cleared of debris and signs of rebuilding in Lakeview. At each stop, he took time to speak with homeowners and construction crews and ask them their opinion of the recovery effort. Powell admitted it might be difficult for people to see progress everywhere, but said there were signs that the recovery was on track.

Photo caption: Don Powell tours parts of New Orleans in late July. Courtesy NBC News.

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Faces from the Gulf: Dan Hitchings

"While we're making it much better and stronger than it was before, it's still not ultimate protection for the city of New Orleans."
Dan Hitchings
Director, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Task Force Hope

As NBC News gears up for the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we're interviewing several officials who play key roles in the ongoing recovery. I recently spoke to Dan Hitchings, the director of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Task Force Hope, who is heading up efforts to repair New Orleans' damaged levees. We discussed the progress at the three sites where the Army is trying to strengthen flood walls, install flood gates and prepare pumping stations. In the year since the levees breached, the Corps has been dogged by questions about their original design. Hitchings reassures residents that the flood protection plan has been improved, but warns the system is still not strong enough.

Photo caption: Dan Hitchings talks to Steve about the levees. Courtesy of NBC News.

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Faces from the Gulf: Gov. Blanco

"I am less trusting. If a person says they're going to do something, I don't really accept it. I have people double-check it and kind of dog it until I'm satisfied that it's actually done. I think I'm a little rougher around the edges, a little less tolerant of lots of things that happen around me."
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, D-La.

Starting today, I plan to offer a new "Faces from the Gulf" daily until the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29. Last Friday, I spoke to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco at the governor's mansion in Baton Rouge. You'll probably see portions of the interview this week or next on various NBC News broadcasts and MSNBC-TV. We talked a great deal about the upcoming anniversary. One of the questions I asked was how the last year changed her personally and politically.

Photo caption: Gov. Blanco talks to Steve Friday in Baton Rouge. Courtesy NBC News.

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Documenting the destruction

Photographer David Burnett recently returned to New Orleans' Ninth Ward months after his first visit for National Geographic. Photo by Steve Majors.

"So many things change... but in the photograph, it will live forever. That image is frozen in time."
David Burnett
Photographer

I met David Burnett while researching a story for Nightly News on Burnett's haunting photos of the post-Katrina landscape along the Gulf Coast. I found the motivation behind each picture just as important as the photo itself. Burnett told me he had mixed emotions about seeing part of the ward finally cleared of debris. He hopes his photographs will serve as a reminder to everyone of the scope of the devastation.

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FACES FROM THE GULF

In the short time that I've been here in the New Orleans bureau, I've been privileged to meet a number of interesting people and characters. I've introduced you to some of them on this blog. Whether their stories were quirky, poignant or inspirational, they all were certainly memorable.

Each day, I come across so many folks I wish you could meet personally. Now, the folks at MSNBC.com have offered me a novel way to do just that. "FACES FROM THE GULF" is a new separate picture-diary where I hope to offer you online snapshots of people I'm meeting during my time here in New Orleans.

In the past, I referred to this as a "stint." My apologies to folks who felt I was trying to portray it as negative thing. On the contrary, this has been an incredible professional and personal (I've brought my family along for the ride) journey. And that journey has barely just begun. Now I can share more of that with you. I'll still be contributing regularly to the The Daily Nightly. (And yes, I do read all your comments.) But "FACES FROM THE GULF" allows me to share smaller stories that I encounter here virtually everyday.

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Crime returns to New Orleans

A brief follow-up to an ongoing story I've covered on these pages. In an entry last week, I reported that in the month since the National Guard was called in to provide backup to New Orleans police, the murder and crime rate had dropped. It was welcome news for residents concerned about their safety and community leaders concerned about the city's image.

Then this weekend came news that six people were murdered in 24 hours; four died in one shooting alone. Up to this point, city leaders dismissed any notion of a crime wave by explaining that the incidents were not random. They called them "drug-related" and "isolated and retaliatory." Residents would take comfort by saying that they were only happening "in that neighborhood." 

But things have changed.

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