Those without flood insurance face an uncertain road ahead, trying to piece their lives and homes back together.

"I don't think any of us get to be made whole. I don't know of anybody that's even getting back to where they were. It's just a matter of how much you lost," says Meffert.

No one wants to risk more losses until the levees are fixed but there is not a lot of confidence in that. There's evidence some of the levee walls may have failed from bad design or lousy workmanship.

Fixing them is up to Colonel Richard Wagenaar, who told 60 Minutes, that by next summer, the levees will withstand a Category 3 storm. But for a Category 5 storm, Congress would have to double the levee height to 30 feet.

Col. Wagenaar says building a 30-foot flood control system around the city could take five to ten years, and cost billions of dollars.

Asked whether he would live in New Orleans if the levees were restored to pre-Katrina levels, Col. Wagenaar said he would, after a long pause.

"There's a lot of long pauses in things I think about these days," Wagenaar added.

Another thing that gives you pause is the fact that one of the world's largest pumping systems can't keep the city dry with broken levees.

60 Minuteswas there in September during Hurricane Rita. Crews were fighting with everything they had, cooling a pump with a hose and a coat hanger. When the station flooded during Katrina, Gerald Tilton dove under water to open valves.

Since then, Tilton and his men have been living at the station. "Most of us, our homes have been destroyed but a large number of us are still here doing the job that we get paid to do," says Tilton.

Tilton says he hasn't seen his home since the storm hit and only took one thing from the house when he left: his diploma. "I graduated from Tulane last year and that was the one thing that I wanted. I know it might sound crazy."

But sharp minds and heroism couldn't stop a second flood.

It took another two weeks to dry out and count the losses. Now, inspectors with laptops are identifying ruined houses.

"Every house in New Orleans is loaded into this database," explains Centineo. The