. >> reporter: harold joseph lived his entire life in the lower ninth ward of new orleans. he was raising his family in the same house he grew up in. in august 2005, hurricane katrina changed all that. >> okay, this was our master bedroom. and we had a utility room over here. and over here was like a storage and a pantry. >> reporter: like all residents of the lower ninth ward he and his wife and two kids were forced to evacuate. >> we couldn't get back in this area. and you had the military telling you that's as far as you could go. >> reporter: so he moved with his family to baton rouge, louisiana before returning to a different new orleans neighborhood where he now rents. still the 63-year-old contractor longs to return to the house he grew up in. but eight and a half years after the storm, his house is still a shell of what it was. >> i'm all cried out. >> reporter: joseph's story is hardly atypical. the lower ninth ward had a population of 14,000 before the storm struck. but now it's only 3,000. and though construction is underway on a new school, a fire station, and a