Bernice Mosely is 82 and lives alone in New Orleans in a shotgun double. On August 29, 2005, as Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the levees constructed by the US Corps of Engineers failed in five places and New Orleans filled with water.

One year ago, Ms. Mosely was on the second floor of her neighborhood church. Days later, she was helicoptered out. She was so dehydrated she spent eight days in a hospital. Her next door neighbor, 89 years old, stayed behind to care for his dog. He drowned in the eight feet of floodwaters that covered their neighborhood.

Ms. Mosely now lives in her half-gutted house. She has no stove, no refrigerator, and no air-conditioning. The bottom half of her walls have been stripped of sheetrock and are bare wooden slats from the floor halfway up the wall. Her food is stored in a styrofoam cooler.

Energy and interest rates 'not only drivers of inflation'

Information accompanying this year's inflation chart show that smaller headings such as car rentals and accommodation contributed to this year's rise.

Energy and interest rate forecasts differed somewhat from the actual August outcome highlighting a trend in which other items are becoming ever more important drivers of inflation.

Since January, the headline figure has risen from 3.0% to 4.5%. The core figure has also risen - it was 1.3% in January and is now 2.3%.

As in some earlier months, a whole range of smaller headings recorded increases while hardly any of the usual decreases were in evidence.

Together, these added up to explain the 0.1%. Car rental rose quite strongly while recreation activities and accommodation also featured.

Reports Document Failures Post-Katrina

NEW ORLEANS - No less than a half-dozen reports on the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort are being released to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the storm - and nearly all criticize the sluggish pace of the response.

Many of the reports focus on the failure of federal dollars to reach their intended targets. Oxfam's report points out that although $17 billion has been approved by Congress to rebuild homes in Louisiana and Mississippi, not one house has been rebuilt with that money in either state.

Car tax fines cause fury

THOUSANDS OF motorists are running the risk of having their driving licences confiscated and their vehicles taken off the road if they cannot present the police with proof of payment for their vehicle tax which, by law, had to be purchased by August 18. Confusion has arisen among motorists because the official deadline for actual display of the tax stamp in the vehicle is not the same. This deadline is now September 30, having been extended from the date of August 31. For the first time ever, it was possible to pay for vehicle tax online and many motorists are still waiting to receive their tax stamp in the post. In addition, it was not possible to obtain a stamp over the counter when applying and paying in person at the Finanas office this year, as has been the case in previous years. A receipt was issued and people informed the stamp would follow in the post.