New faces of New Orleans

As newcomers take their places four years after Katrina, will a faith-filled future bury a stagnant past? | Marvin Olasky

Chuck Cook / Genesis Photos

NEW ORLEANS—One of America's finest writers, New Orleans native Michael Lewis, stated in 2005 that his birthplace had long ago crossed the "fine line between stability and stagnation. . . . No one of importance ever seemed to move in, just as no one of importance ever moved away."

Four years later—four years since the worst natural disaster ever to hit a U.S. city—lots of people with a pioneering spirit are moving in and coming alongside long-term residents. Together, new and old are trying to speed up the pace of enterprise without losing the conviviality that has long turned 365 acres of swampland into the place—second only to New York—that Americans love to visit.

The experience of Guy Williams, president and CEO of Gulf Coast Bank, and a leader in New Orleans' First Baptist Church, embodies both timelessness and forward thrust. He was 16 when Hurricane Betsy flattened the city in 1965: "My dad and I got in our boat. We went out and rescued people. Ever since then I was mentally expecting to do that someday."