CHALMETTE, La., Aug. 29 (UPI) -- The rural coastal Louisiana parish of St. Bernard Wednesday observed the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's devastation with optimism and promises.
The parish, east of New Orleans, has no incorporated communities, but an overflow crowd showed up at the high school gymnasium in Chalmette Wednesday to rally and spread encouragement, The New Orleans Times Picayune reported.
The storm left the area left under several feet of water in 2005. High school student Nancy Che Wednesday urged the crowd to see this day as a victory.
"Our sound of music is the hammers beating and saws whining,'' Che said, adding every house rebuilt marks another family reclaiming its home and community.
Louisiana's two U.S. senators -- Democrat Mary Landrieu and Republican David Vitter -- told the crowd they support a permanent closure of a manmade shipping waterway that cuts through the parish, which many blamed for the flooding that left the parish under six feet of water in 2005, the report said.
