One of the greatest natural disasters in American history, perhaps the greatest, has not registered in the national consciousness. The loss — yes, “loss� — of one of America’s most unique cities has not caused the reaction that one might expect from this country. Why?

One reason is that people do not know how to think about this disaster. There is nothing for people to latch onto. There were no toppling towers. No great symbols of the destruction. The date does not resonate. August 29 — 8/29. Plus, that is not even the date of most of the destruction. The levees broke, the city sank, and the houses sat and soaked for days after that. There were no great leaders, not even leaders who were great for a day.

New Orleans was wiped out, and nothing about it was poetic.

The nation simply does not know how to think about this disaster.

In addition, there is no way for people to comprehend the weight of it, the size of it. No word is adequate. No pictures can capture it. Even TV, with those spanning cameras or those helicopter shots over parts of the city, never quite captured the feel of destroyed New Orleans. It takes a great artist, like Spike Lee, to convey a sense of this horror. His amazing film put some form to the chaos of the past year.

In fact, though, to comprehend this disaster — or begin to comprehend it — one must see this city first hand, to drive on these streets, to get a sense of how far-reaching the destruction is. Most Americans lack the ability to imagine what the destruction of almost an entire city is like. Few can understand the feeling of one destroyed neighborhood.

To understand this destroyed city it may be necessary to stay here for a few weeks, to see how slow the “rebuilding� process is — slow to the point of being non-existent in some neighborhoods. One bus or boat tour won’t quite do it.

This city has a great weight to it now, a weight that tourists will not quite feel. This weight builds, day to day, and has caused a great deal of depression — and worse — in what was once The Big Easy.

Destroyed houses, for street after street. Turn the corner to see the destroyed post office. There is an empty school, with the playground full of garbage and tree limbs. Drive further down that long street to see a couple of abandoned hospitals. The insides of houses still being dumped onto tree lawns, as other buildings are demolished down the street. Where there was once a busy market, on Elysian Fields, there is now an empty lot. A large church that has seen no people for a year. See hotel windows smashed out near the Superdome, ten months after the fact. See a tree resting on the roof of a house, on West End Blvd., months after the fact. See the painstakingly slow process of rebuilding. As we find ourselves living with all this destruction one year later, and into a new hurricane season.

Local activists called on every member of Congress to come to New Orleans and see these streets. That is the only way anyone could begin to comprehend this place. Only the most callous of congressmen could see the neighborhoods of New Orleans and continue to believe that this great American city is recovering. Only the most callous of governments or the most callous of presidents.

The only shining star of this ordeal has been the spirit of the people of New Orleans. The character of this city has proven itself over the past year. We don’t have much political clout down here, and we can only rebuild so much on our own. Yet the spirit of the city is profound. I have not heard a single note of self-pity during this whole process. Anger, yes; defiance, yes. And definitely pride, a profound sense of pride.

The people of New Orleans have a sense of self-sufficiency even when they are suffering. New Orleanians have not asked “why us?� Instead, they have faced the situation, been deeply disappointed with the poor response, and held their heads up as well as possible.