The population of the Gulf Coast grew twice as fast as the nation’s population between 1960 and 2008, according to a recently released US Census report on coastline populations, but the BP oil spill may change that trend.

Reforming the New Orleans Police Department is a lot like rebuilding a home after Katrina, said Mary Howell, 60, a civil rights attorney in New Orleans for over 30 years.

The only road in Venice, La., winds around grassy marshes and sprouts off into gravel driveways where trailers sit in semi-circles, some on 20-foot stilts. At its end are the three marinas that support the local economy’s lifeline: shrimping.