Thanks for your comments barkway and AnAvidViewer. We felt Kamp Katrina showed how hard it was, and still is for mainly poor people of all races and color, especially since there has been so much polarized thinking around that. There are so many other stories to tell, but we felt this was a film about something positive that one individual tried to do amidst the madness. It's not the full story, just one small perspective, so your thoughts are very interesting to hear so we can get a more accurate picture of what is happening there. Keep them coming.

Always good to hear from an actual resident of the area. Thanks for your viewpoint.

I worked rescue in the Gulf areas after Katrina and Rita and again during early rebuilding a year later and I know how much the media either didn't report at all on some things and twisted others...but all in all I think they did the best they could with what they had.

I just watched the documentary on New Orleans, "The Big Easy", and I must say it was very biased, and full of emotion rather than fact.

For example, on the documentary, they showed a house that 5 people had drowned in when the levees broke. I live down here, and drive over the canal they showed every single day (to go to the University of New Orleans, where I attend classes)- what they failed to show, is that the home where those 5 people died in had a car (it was pushed away during the flooding). So those 5 people DID HAVE a way to escape, but chose not to- that is not the government's fault, as the documentary tried to portray.

Further, the documentary showed a woman at a public housing project that had closed right after hurricane Katrina hit, and she is angry that she can not get back in there, and the documentary tried to portray that the city of New Orleans is trying to force the African American citizens out, not letting them return. What it failed to show, is several things:
1. That public housing projects had major roof damage, and THAT is why it is still shut down. The city is not fixing it until the Federal government pays to get it fixed.
2. Those from that public housing projects has had their rent and bills paid for them (through FEMA) for almost two full years now.
3. Those who lived in that public housing projects has had the same opportunity that the rest of us has had to get a job and start rebuilding their lives-- Every single store, mall, plaza, fast food establishment, restaurant, etc. for miles and miles around STILL has "HELP WANTED" signs in them. McDonalds and Burger King down here is starting people off at between 10 dollars and 15 dollars an hour, with Burger King giving a 6,000 dollar sign on bonus if they work there for one year. Yet nobody fills those positions.
4. And the BIGGEST FACT THAT WAS LEFT OUT:
A day before the storm hit, the officials of New Orleans sent buses to each and every public housing project in our city, and offered to give people free rides out of the area. Three people got on those buses- everyone else said they would stay.
Oh, and one more point of interest:
5. That housing project that the woman in the Documentary was so eager to get back into, was one of two in our city that was found to be the most dangerous in the country. Yes, murders, drugs, and violence 24 hours a day there (even ambulance drivers had to have police escorts into those projects due to the dangerous conditions).

Also, the documentary, which was obviously trying to tell the viewers that the African Americans were being pushed out of the area, and that the Caucasians were taking over, failed to mention that the African American mayor of New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin, gave a speech on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and said "We will make this a chocolate city, the way God intended it to be", and made it very clear that not only were African Americans returning, and were welcome back, but that he wanted New Orleans to be an "all black" city. It angered enough Caucasians that numerous Caucasian business owners sold their business and left the area- it was a very racist statement that the Mayor made, yet everyone cheered him on. Now, how is that pushing the African Americans out?

So I found that documentary to be based on inflaming, and misinforming the public rather than being based on facts and informing the public.

One more point before I finish this message:
In the documentary, it showed an African American male saying how he had no transportation and was forced to ride out the storm. I find that ironic, knowing that he lived in an area that was quite a distance from the gas stations, or even a grocery store, in an area that public transportation does not go to (even before the storm)-- so he obviously had some form of transportation to get around.

In conclusion, as a person who has survived Katrina (I lost the downstairs of my home and everything in the downstairs (and quite a lot upstairs, as we had roof damage too), and had evacuated by borrowing money from a neighbor for gas for the car) I am very sad to see that New Orleans seems to be a city of entitlement and blame, instead of responsibility for our own choices. Many from down here feel that everyone else should rebuild their homes and pay their way- They claim to be too poor to do any work on their destroyed homes, yet they pay thousands of dollars to return to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras, the Jazz Fest, and other major events-- these same people who claim to not be able to afford to rebuild sure do have the money to visit often.

Yes, it was Federal Levees that broke, on Federal Land, and when constructed were built below the specifications, so the Federal agency The Army Corps of Engineers screwed up building the levees in the first place, but lets face it- we live in a bowl, the news reported for at least three years prior to Katrina that the levees would not withstand a Category 3 or higher hurricane, yet so many chose to stay, and chose to ride it out and chose to not have any insurance (I myself had no insurance- I suffered the consequences). Their choices is what turned this into a disaster. I immediately got odd-and-end jobs (mostly gutting homes, cleaning homes of those whose homes were not destroyed, and babysitting) to earn money to rebuild. FEMA did not help me. I helped me. I chose to live here, and chose to not have insurance. My choices were responsible- nobody else was.

With that said, I apologize if I went on a rant, but now, after two years, some people are still sitting around having FEMA (your taxpayer dollars) paying their bills/rent while they wait for FEMA (your taxpayer dollars) to come out, gut their homes and rebuild them. Where is the personal responsibility?

I just came here to set the record straight about some of the facts that were twisted in that documentary. I felt the public had a right to be informed of truth, not bias.