George and Ruby Reno live in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. It is the penninsula created by teh Mississippi River that juts out into the Gulf of Mexico. Their community was where hurricane Katrina first made landfall on August 29, 2005. Every building in the area was destroyed. Wildlife was decimated. Trees were broken and uprooted.
Georg was the first person I met when I arrived there on January 17, 2007. I was visiting Renos as part of my work with Mennonite Disaster Service. Eighteen months after the 2005 hurricanes hit and this area is just starting to pull itself together. Lots of clean up and rebuilding of infrastructure has happened, but people and small businesses are just starting to return.
George ponders his future. He found his boat with satellite photos published by FEMA, miles from where it had been docked. The boat was navigable but was not fit for shrimping the way it had been. He decided to use the insurance money from his house to purchase a new boat that he and his son (who did not find his boat) could use to catch shrimp with. 
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