Five years ago today, Hurricane Katrina landed on the Gulf Coast, sending out waves of devastation from which the region is still recovering. I was glued to the Internet that week, horrified and sickened at the stories people posted on Nola.com, the loss and the looting, the state and federal incompetence, the helplessness, the horrible devastation. And that was before a barge crashed into a federal levee in New Orleans, flooding the Ninth Ward and beyond and wreaking even more damage. A coworker from Metairie spent the week sleepless, updating us as he spoke with friends and family members. He showed us his parents’ house on a satellite map, and we were relieved with him that their street hadn’t flooded. But months later, they were still in a FEMA trailer in the driveway because mold had rendered their house–like many others that had survived the initial assaults of hurricane and flood–uninhabitable.

In the spring of 2007, I visited New Orleans. Driving down Tulane Avenue toward the Quarter, I thought it didn’t look that bad–major urban decay, sure, kind of like areas I’d seen in Detroit, but not devastated to the extent I’d expected. As I drove further, though, I saw more and more piles of bricks and other rubble on the sidewalk, fewer and fewer buildings that were open. On Canal Street just across from the Quarter, shiny new hotels and stores alternated with decrepit structures with windows still boarded over.

In the course of trying to get to the zoo–which I couldn’t find, because many of the signs still hadn’t been replaced–I got lost in a lower-income area. Houses still had the Xes and other marks from rescue workers. Some lots were empty; one held a house-sized pile of bricks.

When I returned in December of 2009, I saw no such obvious signs of the devastation, but some of the new construction on Canal Street dismayed me. It felt generic, more glitzy and shiny and Vegas than the unique, Old World flavor and sights I remember from my first visit in 2000.

This summer, when I read Louisiana blogs talking about the BP oil spill, I couldn’t begin to wrap my mind around this new calamity and didn’t want to try. The people of the Gulf Coast–Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida–have endured difficult blows over the past five years, and many have proven themselves tough and resilient and strong. I admire and support them. I hope to return many more times to this region and to New Orleans, a city I loved long before I ever visited.

This one’s for y’all. And I’ll be playing it tonight while I toast you with a glass of Chartreuse and an intense hope that the next five years will be better.