Remembering Katrina

This is the time when television screens are filled with pictures that don't look all that different than they did a year ago. The flood waters have long since receded, but the debris - piles of wrecked houses, cars, trees - are still there in the neighbourhoods outside the tourist hot spots of New Orleans.

There was much soul-searching in the aftermath of the hurricane that killed some 1,800 people along the United States' Gulf Coast. Too many things went wrong and this anniversary will serve to reopen those wounds.

But the calendar can't be fought, and the date also sparks determination, reminding survivors they are just that.

"We're not well. We're not finished. But I will say this: We've made it. Let's move on. Let's move forward," said Gulfport, Miss., Mayor Brent Warr in a ceremony, AP reported.

Residents are fighting insurance companies to fix their homes, those companies are fighting back with feel-good ads. Mental illnesses skyrocketed in the aftermath, diagnoses climbing among survivors, according to a Harvard study.

Anniversaries serve as a reminder of how far survivors have come, but in Katrina's case, it seems there's many reminders of how far the southern U.S. still needs to go.