'World News Tonight' Q&A: Gulf Coast Recovery

After Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August, it soon became the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history, displacing over a million people and leaving close to $130 billion worth of damage in its wake.

ABC News' Bob Woodruff witnessed the destruction firsthand while reporting from the region. Now, three months later, he has returned to the Gulf Coast to assess the recovery effort.

Following are a selection of questions from ABC News viewers, with Woodruff's responses.

Question: Are there any people or situations you encountered that left a lasting impact upon you?

Woodruff: I think flying over the top of these cities has left a huge impression. Flying over New Orleans, for example, you can see that the center of the city has electricity, but as you go out, they are like ghost towns -- empty shells of houses and no clear signs they will ever be rebuilt.

Along the Gulf Coast, it looks almost as it did three months ago. The houses in many places were completely washed away, with nothing but cement slabs left behind. Really, there is no rebuilding along the Coast still.

Question: Is there enough financial support, both federal and private, to help all families to rebuild in MS [Mississippi]?

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Woodruff: There's certainly been a lot of federal money committed, but not much of it has been spent. People are frustrated with the pace of the execution of the plan. For example, thousands of people were given FEMA trailers to live in and there were several large FEMA staging grounds with empty trailers and no one can understand why it's taken so long.

FEMA committed a lot of money. The Waveland school district, which sustained a great deal of damage, got $10 million from insurance, $17 million from FEMA, but they are $14 million short in what they need to rebuild.

There are massive amounts of money being handed out, but the problem is that much more massive.

Question: Is Mississippi much farther behind New Orleans in regards to the recovery effort? If so, is it because New Orleans overshadowed that of other places?

Woodruff: I think Mississippi is ahead in terms of recovery, mostly because it's a little less complex. Even though the wind damage sustained in Mississippi is about as bad as any area has ever sustained in America, it did not have the kind of mass urban flooding that New Orleans had. It's easier to go back into Mississippi to try to rebuild because you don't have to wait to see if the levees are going to be rebuilt properly. In New Orleans, so much has to be decided about whether to build a Category 3 or Category 5 levee, and only when that's decided can people really determine what their future is going to be.

Question: Is there still a problem with looting in the Gulf Coast area?

Woodruff: No. The looting in New Orleans is over. The military presence that converged in New Orleans in the weeks following the hurricane effectively put an end to looting. The people in Mississippi say there wasn't very much to begin with.

Question: Hello, I was wondering what is the general spirit of the people in the region affected by Katrina? Thank you for your time Mr. Woodruff.

Woodruff: I spoke to one woman today who still can't really believe it. She had seen a satellite photo of her house before she came back and it looked okay. When she came back, it was as if she had her legs kicked out from under her. The whole place had been gutted and ruined.

The neighborhood can't accept that this has happened. People are scared for their futures -- like those who had $100,000 mortgages on their houses and only got $16,000 from insurance, and they are making $30 or $40,000 a year and have no idea how they are ever going to rebuild. They are frustrated by the red tape, the building permits, navigating FEMA regulations, settling with insurance companies. It's getting very old for them.

Question: How are the local officials dealing with all of this? They have no choice but to stay.

Woodruff: Most of the local officials are in the same boat as everyone else. I met police officers who are living in shelters and trailers and are fighting with insurance companies just like their neighbors.

The towns are desperate to find alternative sources of revenue to help rebuild their economies because they have a severely damaged tax base. Some leaders don't even know if their towns will ever been populated again, especially in New Orleans and in some of the poorer areas.

Question: What is the status of all the domestic animals and wildlife rescues?

Woodruff: Most of the animals that were lost in the water are now gone. The lost have either been reunited or sent to shelters. There are no ongoing animal rescues.

Question: How long is the staff at Mother's Restaurant [profiled in the Nov. 29th report] supposed to live outside in trailers? Why did the owners decide to reopen if that was going to be the case?

Woodruff: It's unclear how long people will have to live there -- at least until houses get built and there are rental properties for people to move into. There are actually a lot of businesses that are dying to get trailers for their employees, and some are giving bonuses to those who come back and live that way. It's their choice. In New Orleans, for instance, Burger King is paying $4,000 singing bonuses if people commit to working there for a year.