Razing the stakes

Katrina apparently didn't destroy enough of the city of New Orleans. Now city officials are razing houses on their own.

While Willie Ann Williams waited for federal aid to rebuild her home in the hurricane flooded 9th Ward, it was demolished — apparently by mistake.

There was nothing left but bare dirt.

A city official told her family that the wood-frame house should not have been torn down, but no one has told them why it happened or what happens next.

Mrs. Williams had a building permit and wanted to fix up her house once she received money from the federally funded, state-run Road Home grant program. Now, with no house to repair, she's living 70 miles away in Franklinton, La., and doesn't know whether she'll be able to come back, said Mrs. Williams' daughter, Vonder McNeil.