A tattered American flag hangs outside a ruined home at 5800 Pratt Dr. in New Orleans. The street remains mostly abandoned more than a year after Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans 13 months ago, but in the hardest hit areas little progress has been made and the recovery effort is slow.

Such is the life after one of the costliest natural disasters in United States history.

More than $14 billion later, life in New Orleans is split into two distinct categories.

The French Quarter and Garden District are back to normal. Tourists still flock to the debaucherous Bourbon Street and enjoy beignets in Jackson Square.

However, bureaucratic red tape and the sheer force of the destruction from the broken levees are still taking their toll in the many residential areas of the city.

Homes engulfed by rushing water have dried out but remain untouched by residents who have not come back or by Federal Emergency Management Agency workers who have yet to knock them down.

New Orleans today is a city divided not by race, class or money – it is divided into those who have recovered and those who still have a long way to go.