After the flood: rebuilding the physical and social fabric.

Baton Rouge became the largest city in Louisiana overnight, when evacuees fleeing Hurricane Katrina ballooned the area’s population from roughly 400,000 to 800,000, according to Walter Monsour, the city’s chief administrative officer.

Louisiana's Senators, Mary Landrieu (D) and David Vitter (R), have proposed legislation to provide about $250 billion in federal aid to help their state rebuild from Hurricane Katrina.

Becoming a first-tier city in a single day with no urban planning and no upgrading of infrastructure has resulted in commune-style living, depleted grocery store shelves, and overburdened phone lines and traffic lanes.