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Katrina | The need for volunteers in the Gulf Coast shows no signs of abating | Jamie Dean

NEW ORLEANS— On the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's rampage through the Gulf Coast, the White House trumpeted how much money the federal government has poured into the devastated region in just two years: $114 billion.

Factor tax relief into the equation and the number jumps to $127 billion. That enormous sum comes close to matching the gross domestic product for the entire state of Louisiana. (Louisiana's GDP is $141 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.)

White House officials say that 84 percent of those funds have been disbursed or are available for Gulf Coast states to use. But billions of dollars later, the housing shortage in the Gulf Coast remains acute. The shortage is particularly severe in Louisiana, where thousands of homeowners wait for housing grants behind reams of red tape.