Some won't return to New Orleans

Hill, 23, lost his home in the floods that followed Hurricane Katrina, and with reconstruction expected to take months, many said they were permanently leaving a city that was their family home for generations.

A worker in a New Orleans coffee plant, Hill wants to go back to school and find a job as an electrician in either Atlanta or Houston.

Jeffery Joseph, a 49-year-old truck driver, echoed Hill's comments. "What am I going back to? My house is gone. I lost everything," he said. "I'm planning on staying here."

Joseph said his family had lived in Louisiana since his great grandparents moved to the United States from Haiti. His temporary home is the Houston Astrodome, an enclosed stadium where 15,000 are living on temporary cots in an area that once hosted baseball and football games.

In some cases, the question of where to live divided families. Darlene Wheeler, 43, rephrased a jazz song made famous by Louis Armstrong "Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans."

"It's very sad to leave New Orleans," she said. "I'm going back."