USA Today - Although efforts to keep New Orleans safe in the path of a hurricane proved effective, people in surrounding parishes have been left to cope this week with the impact of Hurricane Isaac’s punishing rains and winds. Residents here — and in Metairie, Plaquemines, LaPlace and elsewhere — sorted through the soggy mess as floodwaters receded, leaving damaged homes, decaying dead animals, scattered debris — and, in some cases, despair. In LaPlace, where residents told harrowing stories of trying to escape chest-high waters that poured into their modest middle-class neighborhood from lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas, Mary Dixon and her family started the process of rebuilding. - Go To Story