AP - Before the next big hurricane's winds howl ashore, Homeland Security officials want an emergency communications network operating, emergency medical facilities treating patients, and teams dispatched to search for victims at the likely ground zero.

AFP - Four months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, the Big Easy is limping into the new year with most of its residents still homeless and mounds of debris still littering the historic French Quarter.

AP - Tropical Storm Zeta stalled and weakened Saturday in the open Atlantic, a day after it tied a record for the latest developing named storm on record.

AP - It's lunchtime and Elvira and Nick are having a quick bite, then it's back to an afternoon of swimming in their big glass house on the Mississippi River.

AP - Before the next big hurricane's winds howl ashore, Homeland Security officials want an emergency communications network operating, emergency medical facilities treating patients, and teams dispatched to search for victims at the likely ground zero.

AP - Tropical Storm Zeta stalled and weakened Saturday in the open Atlantic, a day after it tied a record for the latest developing named storm on record.

AP - Tropical Storm Zeta drifted west across the Atlantic on Sunday and forecasters said the storm might weaken over the day.

AP - Tropical Storm Zeta, the 27th named storm of a record-breaking hurricane season, drifted westward across the Atlantic on Sunday and forecasters said it might weaken during the day.

AP - Dr. Jeffrey Coco, his wife and their three children returned to New Orleans especially for a New Year's Eve party held at a neighbor's house that did not flood in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They stayed in the second story of their own house.

AFP - New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin said that his embattled city will push ahead with its annual Mardi Gras citywide street festival next month, despite calls for the event to be postponed as the city struggles to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Reuters - New Orleans could take three to five years to regain its population of nearly half a million before Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Ray Nagin said on Sunday, in a more optimistic view than some predictions the historic jazz city may never fully recover.

AP - Tropical Storm Zeta, the 27th named storm of a record-breaking hurricane season, drifted westward across the Atlantic on Sunday and forecasters said it might weaken during the day.

AP - It's lunchtime and Elvira and Nick are having a quick bite, then it's back to an afternoon of swimming in their big glass house on the Mississippi River.