NEW ORLEANS — It was a day of remembrance, sorrow and renewal Tuesday for residents of this storm-torn city as they marked the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
Bells tolled throughout the city at 9:38 a.m., the precise minute a year earlier that raging floodwaters began rupturing the city's levee system, unleashing a catastrophic deluge.
More than 1,500 people in Louisiana died because of Katrina. At least 123,000 structures were damaged or destroyed statewide. New Orleans' population of about 460,000 has been halved by the destruction, which forced residents from their homes and workplaces.
New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin offered words of comfort to those gathered outside City Hall for the commemorative bell-ringing. He acknowledged the emotional trauma, but urged residents not to give up hope.
"Trust me. We will get through it. We will get through it together," Nagin said.
Later, at an interfaith prayer service at the downtown Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Nagin said it was time for the city to take responsibility for rebuilding itself.
"If government can't get you your check on time ... it says you need to do something," Nagin said. "It says your neighbors need to come together and all you need to do is cook a pot of red beans and they'll bring over the hammers and the nails."
Remembrances -- some planned and public, others spontaneous and private -- were played out in parishes across the New Orleans metropolitan area.
In neighboring St. Bernard Parish, where all but a few dozen of 27,000 homes were destroyed and 129 residents killed, hundreds gathered to dedicate a monument.
The 13-foot steel cross, bearing an artist's depiction of Jesus' face, was erected near the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, where the parish initially felt Katrina's impact.
Elsewhere, crowds joined five New Orleans City Council members to lay wreaths at landmarks associated with the disaster, including the Superdome, where hundreds were trapped without proper provisions, and the London Avenue and Industrial canals, which split apart in the storm.
Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis' face was wracked with emotion as she stood near a granite memorial in the Lower 9th Ward -- one of the city's hardest hit neighborhoods.
"This is a defining point," Willard-Lewis said, shortly before addressing a group of constituents and National Guardsmen. "We will not be defeated by the tragedy of Aug. 29. We use today as a point of healing."
