New Orleans evacuees pleaded Sunday for temporary housing and other assistance so they can return to and help restore their city to its unique, pre-Hurricane Katrina charm.
“We want to come back, we want to rebuild. But we’re not going to come back until we’re sure we’re going to get the help that’s needed,” 6th Ward resident Brenda Jacobs told the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, a group appointed by Mayor Ray Nagin to make recommendations on how the city should be rebuilt.
Some 50 evacuees — most of them staying in Memphis and Little Rock, Ark. — attended a Town Hall-style meeting designed to obtain comments on rebuilding proposals, including a plan by the Urban Land Institute calling for redevelopment efforts to be concentrated on sections of the city occupying the highest ground.
The meeting is one of five across the South that the commission will conduct with evacuees before issuing a recommendation to Nagin by the end of the year.
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