Storm Forces a Hard Look at Troubled Public Housing

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY

Published: November 22, 2005

NEW ORLEANS - For years, cities across the nation have been declaring old-style public housing complexes a social experiment gone awry, emptying the buildings and, with a good-riddance press of the plunger, blowing them up.

In New Orleans, for better or worse, nature seems to have done some of the job.