Waterquake

New Orleans will face special challenges in recovering from Hurricane Katrina. "All the past (major U.S.) disasters, they have hit suburban areas, not the central urban areas of major cities," says Mary Comerio, an expert on post-disaster reconstruction.

Indeed, the job facing New Orleans can best be compared to the one that confronted residents of Kobe, Japan after the 1995 earthquake that killed 6,000 people and left 300,000 homeless. When a friend visited Kobe three years ago, the city still bore unmistakable signs of rebuilding and some residents were still housed in temporary quarters. The last of the temporary housing units were finally closed this year, just before the 10th anniversary of the quake. Ultimately, many of the orginal inhabitants displaced by the quake wound up moving someplace else. America's beloved Big Easy will bounce back, but the magnitude of the challenge can't be underestimated.