The Evacuees

Hurricane Katrina survivor Robert Paige, left, holds his son Robert Paige III while speaking at the opening ceremonies of the Project Aftermaths gulf coast hurricane anniversary gathering in Indianapolis, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2006.

Jovaughn Recasner, left, and rapper "Kilo" dance to the music during a Hurricane Katrina evacuee anniversary party at Underground Atlanta, Friday, Aug, 25, 2006. Recasner was a New Orleans firefighter and is now a firefighter in East Point, Ga. "Kilo" was a rapper in New Orleans.

Former New Orleans residents Fran Ivker, left, and her husband Barry Ivker, pose for a portrait at their home Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2006, in Hoover, Ala. FEMA officials say there are more than 20,000 evacuees from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas still living in Alabama.

Former New Orleans resident Sherman Brown poses for a portrait Wednesday Aug. 23, 2006, at his home in Center Point, Ala. Brown is one of thousands of evacuees who now reside in Alabama due to the effects from Hurricane Katrina last year.

Katina Harness right, who lived in the uptown area of New Orleans, and now lives Houston, Texas, talks with case manager Ethel Hill at the opening of the new Welcome Home Center in New Orleans on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2006. The center provides displaced citizens with the tools and guidance to navigate the journey home to New Orleans.

Loucille Simmons, originally from Louisiana's Jefferson Parish, pulls a food cart into a classroom where she works at a Head Start Center, in Newport, R.I., Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006. Simmons lives with her 16-year-old daughter, Cherell, in a two-bedroom apartment in Middletown, R.I., up the street from the former Navy housing complex where she and scores of other evacuees stayed for months after Hurricane Katrina.

Theresa Reed, a safety sitter at Charlton Memorial Hospital, in Fall River, Mass., keeps watch over a patient as fellow hospital workers pass by in the emergency room, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006. Reed was forced to evacuate her apartment in Covington, La., in the days following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The city of Covington is situated on the opposite side of Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.

Hurricane Katrina evacuee Darrell London walks several miles from his hotel to his former rental house, from which he was evicted earlier in the month, Wednesday, July 26, 2006 in Houston. London went to his former home to check on mail. When he returned to his hotel room, he had been locked out for not paying that bill.

Katrina evacuee Dawn Strain sorts through recovered water-damaged photographs of her wedding Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006, in Raleigh, N.C. Strain and her husband Byron have found jobs and bought a home in Raleigh. They left New Orleans the day the storm made landfall.

Tinisha Speed is shown with her children, Anthony, 2, Jakira, 1, and Trayvon, 11, Friday, Aug. 18, 2006, in her East Lansing, Mich., home. Hurricane Katrina devastated the section of New Orleans where Speed was living a year ago. The 26-year-old and her three children are among the several hundred to a few thousand hurricane evacuees officials estimate are living in Michigan.