As for the time it takes to rebuild unless you have faced some of the very same challenges please do not throw stones. I lost my home and everything I owned including my business. It took over a year to settle insurance claims. Acquiring overpriced building materials was a nightmare due to supply and demand. Every day continues to be a challenge. My homeowners insurance has tripled. My business which depends on the health of the economy is in death throes. More than 2/3 of the people in my town have abandoned their homes and moved away. If I could get even half of what my home appraised for pre-Katrina I might do the same thing. For months and months I worked myself sick while living in a FEMA trailer trying to get my life back on track.
Make no bones about it, recovery in one area cannot be compared to another. Every single person who has had their life forever altered by a natural disaster has a unique set of obstacles and challenges laid out before them. My observation as a victim/survivor of Katrina is that most people do the absolute best they can. Trust me, it's a lot harder than you can imagine when everything for miles and miles is decimated and your heart is completely broken.
This all makes me mad this morning.
