The world turned to their televisions on Aug. 29 to watch the disaster strike. The disaster, which caused $34.4 billion in damages, was the costliest hurricane of all time, according to www.louisiana.gov. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described the aftermath of the hurricane and flooding as “probably the worst catastrophe” in the country’s history.

 The task at hand: rebuild New Orleans, La.

The city, in its delicate condition, cannot figure out “who the heck is in charge here,” according to the Washington Post.

Governor Kathleen Blanco created the Louisiana Recovery Authority to coordinate the reconstruction effort. Delegates asked Congress for $200 billion, but there was no clarity as to where the money was going in the state’s request, according to the New York Times.

The New Orleans City Council announced earlier this month that it is forming a recovery commission.

Michael Willis is just one of the architects on the rebuilding committee. New ideas have been proposed for re-building, but Willis said that preserving historic architecture must be a guiding principle for any approach on rebuilding. “At the end of the day, it’s got to look and feel like New Orleans,” he said in the Seattle Post.

 For Jason Stancliffe, a freshman from New Orleans, the look and feel of New Orleans is miles away. “My family was evacuated before Katrina hit,” Stancliffe said. “They are living in Pleasant Grove, Utah with my oldest brother.”

 When Stancliffe left Louisiana for Idaho, Hurricane Katrina was near Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. Stancliffe’s home, which is on the north side of the Mississippi River, remained safe after Katrina struck, but he knows people who were affected. “I have friends that live there,” he said. “And I have not been in contact with them since the disaster.”

 Eventually residents are going to need a city to return to.

At a three-day conference held in early November a committee discussed what needed to be done to rebuild New Orleans. They concluded that a written agenda was needed to help guide the massive rebuilding effort.  

Check for Time magazine’s Person of the Year issue, on newsstands Dec. 19.