NEW ORLEANS — Almost 20 years after Hurricane Katrina hit the city, a drive through New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward takes you past boarded homes, empty, overgrown lots and block after block where there are few people or houses. In 2005, 15,000 people — mostly African Americans lived in this neighborhood. Today, the population is a third of that.

For many of the people who returned to rebuild their homes and lives after the storm, it's been difficult. Neighbors are gone, there are still few stores or schools and for some, Burnell Cotlon says, it's still a daily struggle.

"This is not a third-world country. This is New Orleans. Now, we're only 10 minutes from the French Quarter," Cotlon says, "And the people that's here in the Lower Ninth Ward, they're still suffering."

August 29 marks t

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