NEW ORLEANS — Standing in the muck that once was her childhood home, Lauren Newell began to shake.
She cast an eye about the living room, at the rot of mold that was creeping up the walls, turning white paint black. There was a sadness as she picked up the few items inside the lakeside home that had not been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
"My folks decided to cancel their flood insurance a couple of months ago," she said. "The water never got that high. It just didn't seem worth it."
Throughout New Orleans on Friday, in selected ZIP Codes, residents were allowed back into their neighborhoods to assess the damage. Others weaved through back streets and around police roadblocks to areas that were not officially reopened.
In so many cases, the returnees were greeted by the dismal prospect that it would take years to get back to normal.
In an effort to get the city back on its feet, Mayor C. Ray Nagin reopened the French Quarter and the Uptown section of New Orleans. Residents had been allowed earlier to return to Algiers, a middle-class neighborhood across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter. Together, the various reopened parts of the city were home to about a third of New Orleans' 500,000 residents.
Newell wore white rubber boots Friday as she trudged into the downstairs bathroom and returned with a plastic container of small tubes and bottles. "My mom's hair-coloring stuff," she said. "She'll want it."
In the early morning, others began returning to the city.
Ronnie Lee was heading for the French Quarter on his bicycle to pick up supplies. He said he'd returned to his ruined home on the outskirts of the French Quarter after Katrina because he "couldn't deal with the madness of the Superdome."
Andrew Haab, who had worked as a night security guard at the New Orleans federal courthouse, threaded his way through the empty streets Friday morning, just as he has for weeks. His house was destroyed by Katrina, but he said he thought he still had a purpose helping animals and people.
"Every couple of days," he said as he dropped supplies off at one woman's house, "I bring her some ice and food. It keeps me from going nuts in this hellhole."
He also took food to Alvin Ernst, who had not seen his wife in weeks.
"She left on a boat," Ernst said. "The last time I saw her she was floating away down the street. I haven't heard from her since."
