Photo SpecialThen and Now: New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
PEOPLE.com revisits the city – and its determined residents – four years after the devastating storm
'I LOST EVERTHING'
Four years ago when the storm split her house in two, Smith was forced to leave New Orleans. "I lost everything," Smith says. "I had nothing left. I didn't think it could get any worse." But when she returned to the city several weeks later, it did: She lost her school board job and mounds of "trash" – actually her precious belongings, destroyed by wind and water – were taken out into the street to be thrown away.
