Silence After the Storm

For any passerby, the vast arrays of empty subdivisions, abandoned shopping centers and vacant office complexes pose a troubling riddle: What happened to everyone who once populated these homes, these shops, these playgrounds? Will they ever return?

To better understand the decisions facing Katrina's displaced, The Post selected a typical abandoned street and tracked down as many of its former residents as possible. Beechwood Court in New Orleans East represents one of the city's largest middle-class areas, just the sort of neighborhood that must come back if the city is to recover.

If Beechwood Court is any guide, many city neighborhoods will be sparsely populated for years to come.

Eighteen families, most of them African American, lived in the handsome brick homes facing the street, a pleasant suburban cul-de-sac of big yards and picturesque live oaks. Everyone worked -- there were a couple of truck drivers, a few small-business owners -- and residents enjoyed a community pool and tennis courts. Most had at least some flood insurance coverage.

Then came Katrina, which flooded homes up to 10 feet. Now on Beechwood Court there are waist-high weeds and an unnatural quiet. Houses yawn open, their front doors creaking with the breeze. The community pool is filled with murk. Nearby commercial strips contain shuttered banks, vacant grocery stores, empty parking lots.

"It's kind of like a wilderness now," said Errol Smith, 58, a consultant to an accounting firm and a former Beechwood Court resident. Like most of his neighbors, he has no immediate plans to return, which he says would require "living like a pioneer."

"Too desolate," he said.

The Post was able to find and speak with members of 15 of Beechwood Court's 18 households.

Five of them have plans to be living on Beechwood by the end of the year. The biggest holdup for these people has been securing contractors and getting the work done from afar.

"Every day you do a little," said William Atkins, a 45-year-old truck driver who, along with his wife and children, is living with relatives in nearby Gretna, La. "Hopefully next month. I'm waiting on cabinets now."

But 10 other families, living as far away as Dallas, Nashville and Cape Cod, have no immediate plans for returning.

Eight of those 10 said they had bought homes elsewhere or were otherwise unlikely to return. Two said they were holding out hope that they could get enough federal housing aid to rebuild their Beechwood Court homes.