New Orleans: A different place without the displaced

NEW ORLEANS -It does not matter how many photos you've seen, how riveting the videotapes have been as they splashed across the television screens, with desperate voices crying out in the background, or listening to the emotional Congressional testimony of displaced residents of New Orleans. None of those experiences - or even all of them combined - can prepare you for the experience of entering the city's lower 9th Ward, where Hurricanes Katrina and Rita roared.

Almost seven months later, it is still hard to believe your eyes. This is the worse of the worst. Debris is piled high in no particular order - on the streets, next to houses, under fallen trees. Whether made of brick or …