Destroyed house

As part of his Road Trip 2008 project, CNET News.com reporter Daniel Terdiman has been driving around the South for several weeks, writing stories related to space, the military, business, technology, and music.

One of the rarely told stories of the South these days is the slow or nonexistent recovery since Hurricane Katrina of some of the poorest neighborhoods of New Orleans. As such, Terdiman visited some of those areas to see whether the image of a bustling and healthy Crescent City is only a part of the story.

In the Lower Ninth Ward, the worst-hit area of New Orleans in the August 2005 hurricane, just 1 in 10 original residents is living there today. Everywhere you look, there are abandoned and condemned buildings. Much more evident are the countless empty lots where the flood simply wiped the houses there off the face of the Earth, leaving behind in the interim little more than weeds taller than people.

This house, in the Lower Ninth Ward, is typical of the district. It is destroyed, but its owners don't have the means to demolish it or renovate it. Blights like this are the rule, not the exception in the area.

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