The Bordelons: Rebuilt Home, Hope for the Future

In August 2006, the Bordelons were featured in an NPR slideshow documenting a day in the life of New Orleans.

Watch the Slideshow

A year ago, Donald and Colleen Bordelon's home in St. Bernard Parish was still pretty much a ruin, a victim of Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters. Since then, the Bordelons have made a lot of progress. They have almost finished rebuilding the inside of the house, and they've moved in furniture and even hooked up the cable TV.

They are now working on the outside, putting up new siding and installing new gutters and a carport. They still don't have regular telephone service, but are hoping that will be installed in the next two to three months.

Despite some talk of not rebuilding neighborhoods vulnerable to another flood, the Bordelons are also more confident that their neighborhood will come back.

They share with NPR's Steve Inskeep that fiber-optic cable lines are being installed nearby. And more of their neighbors have begun rebuilding their homes.

Still, Colleen Bordelon admits it's hard to get used to the way the neighborhood looks.

"You don't even think about it until you go outside," she says. "And then you say, 'Yuck!'"